


Super High School Level Talent Swap

by KirumiTJ



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Talentswap (Dangan Ronpa), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-05-10 11:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 28
Words: 42,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14736545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirumiTJ/pseuds/KirumiTJ
Summary: In an alternate universe where Dangan Ronpa's protagonist is the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader Celestia Ludenberg, how will the School Life of Mutual Killing end?





	1. Introduction To Your New Classmates

This is the story of Celestia Ludenberg, the Super High School Level Biker Gang Leader. Her renowned Biker Gang, the Red Ace’s, is known throughout the entirety of Japan, and she is known to rule it with an iron fist. Her first day at Hope’s Peak Academy, the prestigious High School for ultra-talented students with Super High School Level skills, was met with a sudden turn for the worst when she lost consciousness. Upon waking, she wondered the halls and found herself in a gymnasium with a colorful cast of characters, all staring at her.

“Well I guess I was wrong about 15 being the stopping part”, spoke a red-haired man with a goatee dressed in what looked like beach attire, swimming shorts with shells printed on them and a tank top.

“I p-p-predicted there was one more, but no one was listening to me!”, stuttered a girl with long braids and sporting an ankle length skirt with a blazer.

Finally, after the barrage of comments, a girl in a knee-high, red skirt and a black button up buttoned all the way to her neck with a red tie dangling down walked up, meeting Celeste face to face.

“Hi! We were just getting to know each other, usually, I’d totally give you a citation for being late, but given the situation, I’ll let ya off with a warning. Empathy is totally moral!” She punctuated what she no doubt considered an extreme kindness with a wink. “My name is Junko Enoshima! They call me the Super High School Level Moral Compass, I sorta have a knack for maintaining order! I was even made hall monitor at all my past schools just because of how people fall in line when I tell ‘em to! How lucky this world is that I am role model for all those who look up to me!”

“I see…You are all my classmates for this school year. My name is Celestia Ludenberg, and I am the Super High School Level Biker Gang Leader. Perhaps you have heard of the Red Ace’s?” Celestia asked, attempting to get a bead on the girl in front of her.

“Hmm….Never heard of them. But a gang, that’s uber immoral! Disband at once!” Junko spoke with authority as if the Prime Minister himself gave it to her while pointing an accusatory finger at Celestia.

Celeste couldn’t recall when she was last spoken to like this. Such abruptness and presumed authority. She couldn’t resist but chuckle. “Hehe, I shall not be doing that.”

“Give it time and you’ll realize I’m right! They always do, hehe. But anyway, the rest of us have been giving introductions to everyone else. You might as well get to it!” Junko gave Celeste a slight pat on that back and walked her over to the leftmost individual, a boy in a brown hoodie that comes slightly past his hands and some grey sweatpants with a massive ahoge as a hairstyle.

“Your name was Makoto, I remembered! Friendship is totally moral! Anyhow, this is Celestia. She’s mingling with everyone else and I’d thought I’d at least start her off with someone. You two get along now!” With a turn and a wave, Junko walked off, leaving Celestia alone with this Makoto individual.

“I’ve only known her for about 10 minutes, but introducing me to someone like that and then walking off seems exactly like what Junko would do. My name is Makoto Naegi, and I guess you want to know my talent. As embarrassing as I find it, I’m the Super High School Level Fanfiction Author.” The boy said, scratching the back of his head, his cheeks pink. “It was just a hobby, but then the scouts found my stuff, and here I am! I honestly feel totally out of my league.”

“As you should. It was absolutely Smutty trash, undoubtedly. I know your kind, unprofessional literature is the bane of the community. Bow before you literary superior, Byakuya Togami, the Super High School Level Writing Prodigy” Spoke a man with blonde hair in a white button-up shirt and a grey cardigan with matching pants, the apparent stripes on the cardigan are, Celeste is now noticing, sentences written in small font.

“Togami, like the author of ‘The Hidden Truth’ Togami? I’ve written fanfics about your work before, but they were taken down by your lawyer…” Makoto looked at the man with a slight tinge of disappointment as if reliving the moment.

“Yes, and I instructed them to take down any such dribble they find online. My works are perfect, I need no help from wannabe’s like you” claims Byakuya.

“Hey, that isn’t cool!” Makoto said, his voice slightly louder

“You see, that’s why I’m glad I don’t write in English. Too much noise surrounding literary nerds.” A girl in a sweater spoke up, a stylus was placed above the ear. “My name is Aoi Asahina, and I’m the Super High School Level Programmer. And every time I see traditional writers bicker like this, I only double down on never typing anything other than in script.”

Celeste, no longer interested in the budding rivalry between the established author and the fan, moved on to another cluster of people, three people talking peacefully. The rotund man in a basic brown school uniform was the first to speak upon seeing Celeste approaching them.

“Ah, the sharply dressed 16th student approaches! Greetings, mysterious one.” He spoke with an excited voice “It has been established we are classmates, so I shall introduce myself. I am Hifumi Yamada, and I have captured the heart of Lady Luck herself, and have therein been dubbed the Super High School Level Lucky Student. She was surely struck by my devilish wit and charm” He pushed up his glasses with the last few words. 

“My name is Celestia Ludenberg, the Super High School Level Biker Gang Leader. It is…A pleasure.” Celeste was slightly hesitant to introduce herself to the hefty set and offputting man but did so out of common courtesy.

“My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! I am the Super High School Level Detective, for I place the law above all else! If you break it, you will have me to deal with. And by that, I mean the proper judicial proceedings after I discover your fiendish plot!” The man in what looked almost like a police uniform all but screamed. “I would ask that you not touch anything you don’t have to, as there is a slim possibility that this is a crime scene.”

“And what crime has been committed here?” Spoke Celestia, a hint of detachment for a figure representing the police in any way.

“A 16 person kidnapping! I recall coming to this school, but nothing else. If this is a kidnapping, then lady justice will need cooperation from all of us to preserve this crime scene.” Instructed Kiyotaka

“I p-p-predict that we all die. They brought us a-all here to kill us. A gruesome death is in all of our futures!” Shakily asserted the girl with ponytails.  
“And who are you to predict such a grim fate for us? If we were truly kidnapped, there are hundreds of angry bikers looking for their ruler. They won’t rest until they find me” Celestia spoke as if she was sure, but there was a slight twinge of doubt in the back of her mind. Had she been betrayed by one of her lackeys? How was she stupid enough to let her guard down?

“My name it T-Tokou Fukawa, I am the Super High School Level Fortune Teller, so you bet your ass that I’m confident in what I predict!”

“Perhaps it would be for everyone’s best interest if you kept such a prediction to yourself” The monster of a girl apparently listening in to their conversation chimed it. “It causes panic, and panic solves nothing. In a battlefield scenario, panic can throw a well-disciplined army into disarray. My apologies for interrupting. My name is Sakura Oogami, the Super High School Level Soldier. I felt it my duty to discourage such talk”

“I agree, we have to keep morale up!” From behind the massive woman was a much smaller one in a flashy blue skirt and a pink top. “My name is Chihiro Fujisaki, the Super High School Level Idol. I can sing you a song if you need to keep morale up!”

“I bet ya 50 big ones that she’s the first one to eat someone. The cute ones can never be trusted.” A man with giant hair in a loose fitting shirt 10 feet away attempts to whisper to a red-headed boy. “Oh, did you hear that? Sorry! My name is Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Super High School Level Gambler. I win one hundred percent of my bets thirty percent of the time!”

“Dude, that’s not cool to say that stuff in front of girls.” The red-haired boy in beach attire, who the gambler tried and failed to whisper to, says. “My name is Leon Kuwata. I’m the Super High School Level Swimmer, but really I just like hangin’ out on the beach!”

“Hey, it really isn’t okay to say things like that!” A blue haired girl in cleats and an outfit fit for rough outdoor play spoke up. “Hi. My name is Sayaka Maizono, I’m the Super High School Level Baseball star.” She smiled and tilted her head, and then went back to glaring at Yasuhiro “I know how much it sucks to get picked on for being cutesy, so apologize to her right now!”

Celestia let out another chuckle at the disarray of what was happening in front of her. The idol was now hiding behind Sakura as Yasuhiro tried in vain to apologize for his passing comment about her eating people, all the while a few individuals stood alone in the distance, away from the chaos.

The Biker Gang leader decided to approach the girl with the purple hair and walked to her. “Greetings. You are one of the only ones I have not been introduced to yet, my name is Celestia, and I’m the Super High School Level Biker Gang leader. And yourself?” 

There was a hesitation before she finally spoke, “My name is Kyoko Kirigiri. I am a Fashionista.” Celeste looked her up and down and could definitely imagine her in magazines, the simplistic indigo pantsuit wasn’t anything special, yet this Kyoko individual carried herself in a way that made it seem like it was the be all end all of fashion. However elegant in her appearance, her conversation left something to be desired. Seeing she very obviously didn’t wish to be disturbed any longer, Celestia attempted a dignified exit.

“Well, it is a pleasure. I’m going to introduce myself to-“As she turned to go towards the others, her head suddenly impacted with someone else’s. The girl that Celestia ran into didn’t fall but reeled back in pain. 

“You idiot! Watch where you’re going.” Holding her head in pain was a girl with medium length black hair wearing an expensive looking grey dress and a silver clutch. “I should…” The girl brought her hand back, presumably to strike Celestia, and Celestia instinctively reached for a knife she keeps on her, only to find it no longer there. However, before the attack connected, a large hand was placed on the attacker's shoulder.

“Mukuro, calm down. It’s not worth it.” The hand belonged to a man in a long coat with bandages wrapped around his chest and a large pompadour was the most noticeable thing on anyone’s head.

“Whatever. I shouldn’t bother with these peasants anyway” With a scoff, the girl walked away, leaving the man in the coat alone with Celestia and Kyoko, who was watching all of this expressionless.

“I apologize, I should’ve stepped in sooner. I’m off my game today, usually, I don’t let Mukuro get that heated in the first place. Anyway, my name is Mondo Oowada, they call me the Super High School Level Martial Artist, but I really just work as Mukuro’s bodyguard. She’s a bit…High maintenance. She isn’t the Super High School Level Heir for nothing.” He bowed as he apologized, and afterward’s caught back up with Mukuro. 

What a strange bunch, Celestia thought, and even stranger that others mentioned not remembering how they got here. She hoped that the headmaster would be in soon, it’s a lot easier to assert yourself as an opposition to authority once the authority presents itself. As she thought these words a noise could be heard from behind the podium on the stage.

“Puhu-puhuhu” 

All other noise slowly ground to a stop, the tension in the room could be cut with a knife, Celestia thought. But the absurdity that was about to ensure couldn’t be predicted, and what happens next defied all previous expectations.


	2. An Escalation of Immense Proportions

“Upupu-Upupupu”

The maniacal laughter grew louder until it was the only noise in the room. Even the more brutish of the students didn’t dare make a step in the direction of the podium. After a painstaking 10 seconds, a half-black and half-white bear with a menacing red eye hopped atop of the podium and began speaking.

“Hello, hello hello! Good morning my lovely students, I am headmaster Monokuma!” The bear spoke in a sing-songy tone.

“What on Earth is that?” Celestia exclaimed with her petite hand over her mouth in awe.

“Whoa! That looks like something straight out of a manga! Ha, it’s sorta cute.” A rather excited Makoto exclaimed, a smile on his face.

“An animatronic construct of unknown intent appears before us, the crowd, muttering just moments before, appears to be in stunned silence. Half black as night, the other white as a ghost. The contrast strikes my eyes as nothing but sinister.” The Writing Prodigy narrates as he jots the words down in a journal of some sorts.

“Dude, can’t you just say ‘Holy shit, a talking stuffed animal!’. Why ya gotta be so flowery?” Mutter Leon.

“Hey!” Interjected Monokuma, flailing its arms. “I am not a stuffed animal, and I am most certainly not cute! I, as previously said, am your esteemed headmaster!” The bear puffed out its chest proudly. “And this is the School Life of Mutual Killing”

The students looked back and forth at each other trying to decipher what the bear meant, Celestia’s mind went to a feud the Red Ace’s had with another gang that ended in, well, mutual killings. But the air of uncertainty didn’t last long, as Monokuma continued. 

“It’s easy, just choose the person you least like here and stab ‘em, boil ‘em, bash ‘em. That is if you want to see the outside again.” The bear shook with excitement at the thought of the possibilities.

“What are you saying?” Aoi the programmer said in a shaky voice.

”What I’m sayin’ is,” Monokuma responded, “Kill one of your classmates if you want outta this joint.”

"Excuse me!” Kiyotaka loudly exclaimed “Headmaster or not, I cannot condone even the mention of mutual killing. Even if this is some sick hazing of your new students, you leave me no choice but to carry out my duties as the Super High School Level Detective!” He continued, taking a step forward with each word, all the while reaching for the silver handcuffs dangling from his belt. “I am placing you under arrest while a proper investigation into those egregious comments you just made can be conducted!”

“Hey buddy, I wouldn’t recommend touchin’ me with those!” Monokuma growled, his metal claws now unsheathed. The bear hopped down from the podium to the floor, glaring up at Kiyotaka, the two now no more than 2 feet away from each other. “I shouldn't have to explain this, but any violence against the headmaster is prohibited! Sorry ‘bout your luck Mr. Dick.”

“Your threats are meaningless to me!” Kiyotaka said as he bent down and grabbed the bears arm. However, as soon as he did so the bear started beeping.

“I warned you!” Cried Monokuma “Guess ya have to get your punishment…” The time between the beeps decreased, and Kiyotaka took a single step back before a flash of movement blurred his vision. The giant woman introduced as the Super High School Level Solider moved quicker than the eye could perceive, it seems her outward appearance was deceptive when it came to her dexterity.

“Everyone, down!” She commanded, and everyone hit the floor with their hands over their head. They all watched as Sakura threw herself onto the bear, covering it like a dome. After a couple of seconds, a loud ‘pop’ sound came from underneath Sakura, but her giant body didn't move, and the beeping stopped. As the students slowly began rising, some from the fetal position, they all looked at Sakura still over the destroyed Monokuma.

“Wow, that could’ve been bad. Quick thinking, Sakura!” Cheered Chihiro “It’s a good thing we have such amazing students here.” She spoke and some nodded in agreement, but Sakura remained motionless. “Sakura?” The idol walked over and put her small hand on the muscular arm of the solider, and she slowly fell off of the Monokuma onto her side. The front side of her body, which took the brunt of the explosion, had small pieces of shrapnel scattered across the entirety of it, many stuck where vital organs no doubt reside. The neon pink pouring from the wounds left no doubt, Sakura Oogami was dead.

Celestia was used to seeing violence. It was on her command that her Biker Gang has snuffed out rival gangs, the occasional ransom job wasn’t unheard of either. But a killing without reason, the only motive being a rule violation? She wanted to order someone to beat the shit out of that bear and whoever controlled it, but her entourage was absent, it felt like she was missing a limb. She began to ball her fist in anger, the metal covering on one of her fingers digging painfully into her skin. The others who haven’t seen any violence before took it even worse. Makoto and Sayaka both ran to Chihiro’s side as she fell to the floor in shock, tears forming near her eyes while the two tried to get her to avert her eyes. The rest gathered around the body, some turning their heads away. That is, all but Kiyotaka, who was just staring at the body, his mouth agape and his legs not moving from where he was when the explosion went off.

“She dove onto an explosive to save civilians, it was a noble death befitting a soldier.” Kyoko finally spoke while looking at the body, any hint of emotion gone from her face.

“What...the hell was that!" Leon screamed at no one in particular. A sense of realization washed over him as he spoke again. "Wait a second... does that mean we’re free of that weird bear thing? It’s destroyed, right?” Leon asked

“Nope! I’ve got plenty of replacements, in case you want to test me 3 or 4 or 100 more times! You guys will definitely run out of bodies before I do.” Seemingly from out of nowhere, the black and white bear started speaking from behind the podium once more. “Now I’m a fair bear, some would say a gracious bear! So I’ve given you each a little E-Handbook with all of the rules you have to live or die by, including the one about attacking the headmaster, but for some reason, I’d say you won’t try that one again, puhuhuhu.” The bear let out a sick laugh. “The killing game is on! Upupu, now get killin’!” The bear disappeared as quickly as he appeared, and the students were left with the corpse of Sakura and a lot of unanswered questions.

“That bear…Is totally immoral. It expects us to start just killing each other to escape?” A dejected Junko managed to get out while scrolling twirling a strang of her blonde hair in her fingers.

“This is perhaps the unluckiest moment of my entire life! How oh how can I ever retain the title of Luckster!” Moped Hifumi, crying out

“What a load of crap!” The first confident voice arose and originated from Mukuro. “Obviously we aren't just gonna start killing each other. I've got plenty of responsibilities on the outside, so a few weeks in a place where everything is provided for me is a vacation! We're all Super High School Level students, there are definitely a whole lot of people looking for us right now."

“I have learned many things from my vast experience leading a large group of individuals who are loose with the law.” Celestia spoke “Whenever your opponent is confident beyond reproach, assume it's for a reason. I can't imagine a reason why this bear would think it could keep us captive without taking precautions against anyone looking for us. The Red Ace's have used methods to keep hostages hidden in the past.”

“With an expert on kidnapping expressing the uncomfortable thought that we may not be found, the thought ran through my mind that it is only a matter of time before someone uses the bear's preferred method of escape. Murder.” Byakuya stated coldly, still writing in his journal. He abruptly stopped and looked up at the rest of the group. "With a cast of character this large, one of you is undoubtedly planning a murder as we speak, so I won't stand around and make myself a target. Don't follow me." With that, he closed his journal and exited the gym. 

“What is this? Are we really doubting each other? I know we just met, but I trust you guys!” The ever-enthusiastic Makoto said.

“The primary rule of martial arts is to remain calm, so that’s what we gotta do in a situation like this!” Mondo yelled

“Y-You’re delusional!” Tokou screeched, all eyes immediately shooting to her. “Byakuya was right, y-you all are gonna turn on each other t-the moment it suits you.” She pointed a finger that scanned the crowd before turning and running out of the gym.

“Despite my stellar gambling record, I’m not willing to bet my life on you guys sticking to your word, no way!” Yasuhiro cried his hands on each side of his head.

“What’s going on, this can’t be happening” An absolute horrified Sayaka said, her entire body shaking as she stared straight at the ground.

As the distrust set in, the crowd slowly dispersed. Celestia was one of the first to leave after Tokou hastily ran out during which she was undoubtedly having a panic attack. She walked calmly as if walking down a street and not in a deadly scenario, keeping up her leader persona while still in public. She finally found the room with her name and face on the nameplate. She opened the door and studied the room. It seemed to have been tailored to her preferences with black, grey, and red decorating the room. A table draped with a black tablecloth holds a white tea set. The centerpiece seemed to be a nonfunctioning replica of her elegant motorcycle with the high handlebars and the sidecar she had installed just for her cat. The playing card design is nostalgic for her as she remembers all the time she spent riding it with her most trusted members. She walked to the bike, running her hand across the grooves that make up the more intricate details, this was an amazingly accurate replica. Being trapped within concrete walls away from her gang and the open roads filled her with fury. She fell to her knees, with no one else being around she let her mask fall. She screamed as loud as she could in her anger and tears formed in her eyes. She decided to spend the rest of the day in her bed.


	3. A Motive So Despairingly Vile

After pacing her room for hours, Celestia decided she would take a shower. After stepping out in her towel, she moved to the closet to see what kind of clothes were prepared for her. She was more than surprised to find the same outfit she had on in her closet, along with some pajamas that match her aesthetic. Whoever trapped them here, she thought, put a lot of effort into keeping them comfortable. Around 10 PM, after she was in bed, she heard Monokuma make an announcement that it was nighttime. To her surprise, whether because of the exhaustion or the unbelievable stress, sleep found her quickly. She slept until the similar announcement announcing it was morning chimed. Stretching as she started to prepare her intricate outfit, red heels, black pants, and a white shirt with bell sleeves with Grey frills that all came together with her finger armor, which has definitely been used as a brass knuckle once before. After this morning ritual, she decided to make her way to the cafeteria to find some breakfast. As she opened the door to the hallway, a door across from hers opened as well. Out walked Chihiro Fujisaki, the Super High School Level idol, from her dorm.

“Celestia! Good morning, are you going to get breakfast too?” Chihiro said with a wave while moving to Celestia.

“Ah, good morning to you as well. Yes, I planned on going.” Celestia said shortly.

“Then let’s go together! With all the tension in the air yesterday, some of us going in pairs should build up the morale of others that feel like they can’t trust anyone else, it’d show that we’ve made friends and trust others.” The smile that was on her face faded slightly. “The last thing I want is to disappoint all of you. As the Super High School Level Idol, it’s up to me to keep a smile on everyone’s face, that’s what I promise my fans before performing! So, let’s walk together and show we trust each other!” Chihiro perked up with the last sentence.

Celestia smiled while the passionate idol spoke. Something about her aura made everyone surrounding her perk up and smile. “You are most admirable. Such a pure want to see others smile. Yes, I will accompany you.”

“Great!” Chihiro spoke, as the two began to walk in step. “So, if you don’t mind my asking, are you the leader of an actual biker gang?”

“That I am. The Red Ace’s span the entirety of Japan and I am their feared leader. The name Celestia Ludenberg strikes fear in the shadier parts of the country.” Celestia recalled with joy in her voice. “My, how I miss the open road right now. The wind in my hair and my men riding by my side.”

“Wait a second, Celestia. Aren’t you around 16? You can’t drive!” Chihiro worriedly questioned.

Celestia just laughed and continued walking with Chihiro until they reached the cafeteria. As they entered, it seemed most their classmates had come for breakfast as well. The majority of them were sitting at a long table near the center of the cafeteria, everyone but Mukuro, Mondo, and Byakuya. Junko was standing up at the end speaking to all the others who were sat around the table. As the two entered, she stopped talking and yelled at them from the table 20 feet away.

“Hey hey hey! Looks like we have 12 outa 15 here, and I didn’t even have to call a meeting or anything like that! Super-duper moral to have a healthy breakfast, so all of you here have the Junko Enoshima seal of morality.” Junko as she paused for Celestia and Chihiro to sit. “I was tellin’ all of my lovely classmates that we can’t just start murdering each other, but also that I can’t trust all of you to be moral as myself. So I’m ordin’ all of you to remain in your dorm rooms once that fucked up half-and-half bear gives that nighttime announcement. Understand?” Junko said with her arms crossed.

“Jeez lady, you sure are bossy as hell.” Leon spoke up with a yawn. “But I don’t plan on wandering these creepy ass halls at night anyway, so I guess I’ll go along with that.”

“Same here, we’ll all be safer if we stay in at night!” Sayaka agreed

“Yes, luck favors the vigilant!” Hifumi screeched proudly.

“A curfew is a…popular method put in place as a preventative measure for crime.” Kiyotaka said blankly while staring at the back while, as if in deep thought.

“So, we got any dissidents?” Junko asked, cupping her hand around her ear as if listening for a faint sound and after two seconds of silence she spoke again. “Nope!” She put on a heavy British accent. “Then I do decree that, henceforth, students shall not walk freely after the nighttime announcement and must remain in their own dorms.”

“Hey, if we’re doing a nighttime curfew someone should probably tell the people who are absent, shouldn’t we?” Aoi chimed in.

“Caring for your fellow classmates and ensuring that they’re properly informed? That’s so moral I think I might buuuurst.” Junko began to squeal. “Super good point! Kyoko and Kiyotaka, just because I love some alliteration and because you two have been awfully quiet today, go and check up on the unfortunately absent classmates of ours.” Junko commanded

“I’d like to clarify I don’t recognize the authority that you’ve given yourself, but I agree that the others need to be checked up on. Come on Kiyotaka.” She stood up, but as the two were leaving the cafeteria, Kiyotaka turned and looked at the rest of his classmates. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but turned back before doing so.

“If you would consider it” Celestia began “It would be wise to all meet in this cafeteria for breakfast like we did today every day we remain here. It ensures we have a daily  
headcount.”

“That’s a great idea, Celestia!” Chihiro said cheerfully, sat beside her

“Yeah, a group breakfast every day lets us all get closer too, I like it.” Makoto smiled as he spoke.

“Oh, how I love when my lovely students take charge.” Once again appearing out of nowhere, Monokuma began speaking at the end of the table opposite of Junko. “But I am still the headmaster of this school, and I make your schedules! And I’m calling a mandatory meeting in the AV room in 30 minutes time!”

Celestia recalled looking at the school's map in her E-Book last night. The AV room was one of the rooms in the School Area, she remembered that it was close to the nurse's office that she saw Chihiro and Sayaka investigating as she headed to her dorm room. 

“Sorry ya big dumb bear, but it’s totally immoral to follow your despairingly idiotic commands.” Junko shot back as she put a bite of pancakes in her mouth and plopped down in her seat. 

“When I say a meeting is mandatory, know they’ll be punished if you aren’t there.” Monokuma said sharply, his claws out. “But if you decide not to come, I’ll have an excuse to try out my newly sharpened spears, ya dig?” With that, Monokuma was gone once more.

“Dudes, I’m not gonna risk ignoring that bears orders.” Yasuhiro said. “The sooner we all just accept the fact that we live here now the better!”

“I…Guess ignoring it and getting punished isn’t the best option. We should go.” Sayaka meekly stated

"Ugh, fine. There's no way I'd just let my classmates go and not go with 'em." Junko moaned

And with that, the group migrated over to the AV room. On the way, Kiyotaka and Kyoko followed by the absent three were absorbed into the herd. Finally, they got to the AV room, Monokuma was waiting inside.

“My dearest students, I would like to present your first of many motives! Presenting: The Career Busters! Each CD has a career-ending secret that, if no one dies within 78 hours, will be released to the outside. How lucky I am that you all have so many skeletons in the closet!” Monokuma threw CDs across the floor, each having a name written on them in sharpie. Celestia carefully picked her's up and walked over to a desk with a computer on it. Hesitantly, she placed the CD in the tray and put on the headphones accompanying it. The screen flickered with static for a moment before a picture of Celestia popped up and Monokuma's voice began narrating.

“Celestia Ludenberg, the fearless leader of the Red Ace’s. Your future in the organization is never in doubt, as you are adored by every single member. Their loyalty to you knows no bounds. But their loyalty to Taeko Yasuhiro, a former higher up in the Ace’s most adamant rival gang, would receive none of that loyalty. Now, what would they do if they discovered they were one in the same?”

Celestia was left looking at her own reflection as the video ended. She slowly stood up, trying not to show any hint of the sheer panic she felt in her own mind. How, she questioned, did this damned bear get its paws on this information. She scanned the rest of her classmates and instantly knew that whatever the bear had on them was equally damning for most of them. Some, like Kyoko and Makoto and even Leon, didn't seem all too affected by the threat they just saw. However, most were like Sayaka and Chihiro, completely shaken with tears forming in their eyes. 

There was only one word that could describe the soul-crushing feeling in Celestia's chest, it was like the feeling you get when you are driving too fast and your stomach tingles as you hit a bump or the one you get as you prepare for the teacher to come by to collect the homework you didn't do. This was despair. And it was only the beginning.


	4. An Afternoon Tea Session

“Hm, you expect Super High School students to be lead to murder with such trivial things. You are a fool, evil bear!” Bellowed Hifumi.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’d kill over something like that. Are you kidding me?” Leon asked, the headphones still around his neck.

“Don’t be so foolish as to assume everyone’s motive is similar to yours. You have no idea how serious other secrets could be or how fiercely some would go to prevent a ‘career busting’ secret from getting out.” Scolded Kyoko.

“I want to know how the hell that thing got these secrets. I don’t know about everyone else, but my secret certainly wasn’t easily discoverable.” Byakuya questioned. “But I also recognize that doesn’t matter. There’s a ticking clock, one of us will try and kill another soon.” 

Byakuya’s declaration seemed to silence all in the room. Suddenly, all eyes were on him.

“You’re wrong! No matter what that bear shows us, we won’t kill each other. Especially after someone we barely even knew sacrificed their self to save us!” Aoi screamed at Byakuya.

“You are the trusting fool cliché created by poor writers come to life. Let me guess, you believe that the power of friendship will save us? Or are you going to shoot off some platitudes about hope?” Byakuya shot back, the frustration obviously building in Aoi’s face.

“It is extremely foolish to fight amongst ourselves.” Celestia interjected. “That is exactly what Monokuma wants.”

"She's totally right, what good comes of us being at each other's throat?" Junko asked.

“He isn’t wrong though. Conflict is the first and most easily accessible option for most, I’m not blaming anyone who chooses it.” Mukuro said.

“G-God I can tell you weren't given enough attention as a child and now you make up for it by trying to be the edgy one of the group!” Cried Tokou

“Maybe we can all chill it with the insults a little." Sayaka said while wiping a tear away and chuckling slightly. “We all just need to calm down, probably in our own dorms.” 

“Y-Yeah, Sayaka is right!” Makoto managed to sputter out. “Tomorrow when we all have breakfast together we can talk after we’ve all relaxed a little.”

"And what makes you think we'll all have breakfast?" Byakuya questioned.

"You too-cool-for schoolers missed out on an awesome breakfast where we all agreed to have one every morning. And yeah, I'm holding all of you to that, you forfeited your say when you didn't show up." Junko growled at the author. All Byakuya did in return was scoff and then leave, others followed as the group dispersed.

Celestia, while walking out, heard Kyoko asking Chihiro if she was okay. 

“Oh, yeah I’ll be fine. I’m just kinda scared…“ Chihiro said with a pitiful fake smile. “But don’t worry, I won’t let anyone down.”

It wasn’t necessarily a blackout, but the next thing Celestia knew she was sitting at the wooden table with the black tablecloth over it in her room, her body having moved more or less on its own after such an intense exchange in the AV room. About an hour after she got back to her dorm, she was still sitting at her table when she heard a fierce knock at her door. She hesitantly opened it to see Kiyotaka standing completely upright.

“Celestia! I am going door to door to and...I’d like to offer my resignation as a detective for being inept in my handlings with Monokuma and directly contributing to the events that lead to Sakura Oogami’s death!” He was back to speaking in a loud volume, but the beginning of tears can be seen in his eyes. “I directly caused Monokuma to explode as a way of punishing me, and Sakura would still be alive if I wasn’t so hasty! We barely knew her but she was still our classmate, and I find it reasonable to assume you’d want my resignation!”

“Kiyotaka, I do not blame you for what happened in the gymnasium, that was completely Monokuma’s doing. Resigning your title would be meaningless, not to mention it would make you absolutely useless.” Celestia responded rather callously.

“I-Thank you so much for your kind words!” Kiyotaka said, the tears now coming full force. Celestia nodded awkwardly and closed her door back, Kiyotaka presumably going to the next door to offer his resignation once more.

Celestia sat back down at her table and looked at the decorative tea set that her room came with. She was nothing if not meticulous, she had a daily routine she kept to the letter. One part of that routine that was never to be disturbed was her afternoon tea. Now even that sacred daily tradition was in jeopardy of being stripped of her if she chose to cower and stay in her dorm room. She waited for several hours until it was around 2 O’clock, the normal time for her tea, and then decided that she wouldn’t let that bear take that from her as well as the open road. She stood up and walked out of her dorm, intending to go to the cafeteria to make some royal milk tea.

Celestia didn’t let the anxiety she felt in her stomach show. She strode confidently past the dorms and the hallway that lead to the storage room to the cafeteria door. Something was off, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Her breath became faster, and her heart raced, the air around her seemed to become electrified with suspense. Her hand, suddenly shaky, opened the door. She didn’t know what to expect on the other side, but the last thing she thought to see was Kyoko Kirigiri on her stomach, unmoving and most certainly dead.


	5. Investigation of the First Murder

Kyoko was face down, her arms sprawled out. Her purple pantsuit and heels were replaced with green flats and a yellow sundress. There was a pile of liquid next to her that Celestia could only imagine was vomit. Celestia instinctively slammed the door shut and looked for anyone nearby. The hallway was empty, and Celestia’s body, for the second time that day, went on autopilot. She ran back to the dorm section and pounded on the door nearest to the cafeteria, Kiyotaka’s. It only took a moment before he came to the door.

“Kiyotaka, there’s been a murder in the cafeteria.” Celestia said, slightly out of breath from the all-out sprint from the cafeteria, despite it not being all too far away.

Kiyotaka grabbed his hat that was on his bed and suddenly took a deathly serious tone. “Celestia, gather the others to the scene, I’ll be sure to secure it.” He spoke with the authority that Celestia expected the Super High School Level Detective to when dealing with a crime. 

Celestia, acting as a subordinate for the first time in forever, did as she told. She knocked on the next door, the one with Mondo’s pixelated portrait on it. He opened the door, but before Celestia could speak, Monokuma took her words from her mouth.

“A body has been discovered!” Monokuma cheerfully heralded through the intercom system. “After a certain amount of time, which you may spend however you’d like, the class trial will begin! All students who wish to investigate please report to the cafeteria.” 

“Wait…Does that mean….” Mondo asked Celestia.

“I’m afraid so. Kyoko is dead, someone has started the killing game.” Celestia responded.

Mondo clenched his fist tightly and looked back up as Celestia continued.

“I was going to go door to door…But with that announcement, it doesn’t seem that will be necessary.” As if on command, several doors began opening, the students' emotions ranging from disbelief to fury. 

“What fool fell to the bear's pressure?!” Hifumi cried out.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Leon said, closing his door behind him.

“We have to get to the cafeteria!” Aoi said as she began jogging down the hallway to the cafeteria.

“Hey! Running in the hall is uber immoral!” Junko screamed after Aoi.

The students all gathered in the cafeteria, the place where they ate together as friends no more than 5 hours ago. But the friendly atmosphere that was strained in the AV room was now utterly shattered, as Kyoko Kirigiri, the Super High School Level Fashionista, was dead in front of them. No one objected as Kiyotaka took out some chalk from his pocket and sketched the outline of the corpse. As he was doing this, a voice spoke up.

“Well, that was fast! But that’s not me complaining, I’m over the moon!” Monokuma said, dancing in place. “But I’ve also got a gift for all of you! Introducing the first, of many, Monokuma file.”

Celestia looked at her E-Handbook as it buzzed, and she saw what she assumed was the Monokuma file.

“This is an autopsy, the information here should be invaluable. But I refuse to thank you!” Kiyotaka said while looking at his own E-Handbook.

“Why couldn’t we all just live here in harmony….” Yasuhiro said while sat down with his head down at a nearby table.

“We can’t be moping about! There’s no undoing what awful thing happened but…We can’t give our lives up just because we’re sad!” Sayaka said. 

“I’ve authored countless murder mysteries, I’ll discover the truth in no time.” Byakuya said in an arrogant tone.

“Might I suggest we keep at least two people in this room? Just to be sure no one tampers with any evidence they realize they left behind.” Celestia suggested.

“Smart thinkin’ goth lady!” Leon smiled and put a thumbs up, only to be met with a glare from Celestia.

“There is enough of us to separate into search areas! Having all 14 of us all search one area would be extremely redundant, so let’s spread out. Please disperse according to your own preferences!” Kiyotaka shot off orders. 

“C’mon Mondo, I’ve got some hunches.” Mukuro said to Mondo, as they both left the cafeteria, soon followed out by most others. 

Celestia decided to stay in the cafeteria while others left, Yasuhiro and Kiyotaka stayed in the cafeteria as well, Kiyotaka actively looking at the body while Yasuhiro still with his head down at a table. Before inspecting the body, she looked at her Monokuma File.

‘Time of Death: Approximately 10:45  
The body was discovered in the cafeteria at 2:00  
The cause of death is likely poison due to the absence of external injuries.’

“Kiyotaka.” She called to the detective. “This says that Kyoko died around 10:45. I remember that you came to my dorm sometime around 10:15.”

“Yes, I expected to be questioned about that. I started to go to all of my classmates' dorm rooms at 10 and stopped at 11 to offer my resignation…No one took me up on the offer.” He said, with a slight frown.

“From what I understand, the vast majority of us would be in our dorms during this time frame since Sayaka recommended that we all stay in our dorms for the remainder of the day. The fact that you weren’t is suspicious in its own right, but I’d like to know if anyone of us didn’t answer when you knocked.” She questioned.

“I respect the conclusions you came to, Celestia! You would make a fine detective.” He responded with a smile. “As for those who didn’t answer, there were a few. Sayaka, Kyoko, Leon, Chihiro, Mondo, and Aoi all were either elsewhere or didn’t come to their door. I was in the dorm hallway the entire time, so if someone entered or left their dorm room during that time frame, I would’ve seen. And in fact, I did see Leon head back to his dorm. If I hadn’t been speaking to Toko at the time, I would’ve talked to him then and there.

“Thank you, Kiyotaka." Celestia responded. "And as for the body, have you discovered anything?”

“The Monokuma file sums up the scene very well. There are no external wounds and faint traces of foam near her mouth. Poisoning is the only thing that makes sense.” He summarized.

“I see.” Celestia looked at the scene in deep thought. She glanced over the scene once more, noticing a dried pink substance on the table and an empty glass tipped over. The splash pattern looked as if someone obstructed the path of the liquid as it was spilled, undoubtedly getting a stain on their clothes. She noticed another glass as well, but one that was still full of what Celestia presumed was water. The substance she saw when she found the body was most certainly vomit, but it didn’t seem to contain any food, only stomach acid. 

“I can’t imagine why she would’ve changed her outfit, or where she even got it. I only have replications of my uniform.” Kiyotaka mentioned while physically patting down the corpse, going through her pockets and clutch. 

“I always wear my best clothes when I know I’m gonna hit it big, maybe she was hoping it was her lucky day?” Yasuhiro chimed in.

Celestia noted the evidence in the room and decided to search elsewhere. The nearest place was the storage room, which she made her way to. Entering the room, she saw Toko, Aoi, and Leon all searching the room as well, for what, she didn’t know and suspected they didn’t either.

Celestia began to glance at the many different boxes that were in the room on the massive shelves. There was one shelf per foot, Celestia estimated. The storage was separated into sections, and Celestia decided to look at the clothing. The sizes varied, as did the colors, but one outfit stuck out to her: A yellow sundress, exactly the kind Kyoko’s corpse was in. “Well,” Celestia thought “I guess that’s where the clothes originated. But why change at all?” 

Celestia estimated that she had time to look at one more area, but instead, she decided to talk to some of her classmates. The first, she decided, was going be Aoi, the relatively level-headed one of the three that were in the room with her. 

“Aoi, if I may ask, where were you between 10 and 11?” Celestia asked.

“I, uh, was in my dorm room! Sayaka did mention that we should cool down for the day, right?” Aoi said while scratching the back of her head.

“Ms. Asahina, please do not try to deceive me. Others have told me that you were not in your dorm room. Care to explain?” She responded.

“Oh, I guess I shouldn’t lie…I was in the AV room. I was trying to see if any of those video players could connect to the internet, I felt like it was up to as the Super High School Level programmer to try.” Aoi said with a sad look. “But I failed, there’s nothing I can do with those.”

“Duly noted, Aoi. Thank you for being forthright, but maybe do so from the start next time.” Celestia smiled and walked over to Leon, another who she was told wasn’t in their dorm. “Leon, I learned you were not in your dorm room between the hours of 10 and 11. I was wondering, where were you?”

“Well, I was chilling in my room and couldn’t calm my nerves. I decided to take a dip in the pool, swim it out, ya know?” Leon responded.  
“Can anyone confirm this?” Celestia asked.  
“I-I can.” Toko spoke up. “W-When that detective idiot with n-no inside voice knocked on my door, I saw L-Leon walk by wet and shirtless!”  
Leon smiled. “I guess someone can!” He patted Toko on the back.

“I didn’t say that to help you! D-Don’t get too chummy! And maybe don’t walk the halls in that indecent way!” Toko fired back at Leon.

Celestia had no interest in the awkward exchange continuing between the two, so she headed back out into the hallway. She didn’t particularly nowhere to investigate next, so she wondered in the direction of the dorm rooms. Luckily, she found someone who she was meaning to talk to.

“Chihiro, if I might have a moment of your time.” Celestia called out to the idol who was heading to her dorm. 

“Oh, hi Celestia. What do you need?” Chihiro asked.

“Well, I was speaking to Kiyotaka. He knocked on all of our doors between the hours of 10 and 11 and you were one of the people who didn’t answer.” Celestia probed.

“And you want to know where I was, that makes sense. Well, as embarrassing as this is, I was in my room. I…I just got so scared when I heard a knock at my door that I couldn’t bring myself to answer it. I know I talked about keeping morale up and trusting each other but…” Chihiro began to sob quietly. “I just couldn’t do it.” 

Celestia walked over to the idol and put a hand on her shoulder. “It is alright. This school is a dangerous place, and no one can blame you for protecting yourself.” 

As Celestia was saying this, yet another announcement came over the intercom announcing that the investigation time was over and to report to the elevator to go to the class trial room. Chihiro and Celestia walked together, and slowly all students gathered in the room awaiting the elevator to arrive.

“I would like the murderer to know, I will discover who you are.” Byakuya proclaimed. “You cannot escape the mind of the greatest author of all time, my mind sees all possibilities.” 

“Hey, I’m glad we’re confident at least!” Makoto exclaimed.

“Don’t you ever include you and me in the same group. We are not equals.” Byakuya glared at Makoto, who simply sighed and decided it’d be better to wait in silence. When the elevator arrived, Celestia and Chihiro were the first to step forward together. The others followed suit and soon enough the elevator was descending.

“I…Don't know who did this.” Celestia thought to herself. “But I will not let the Red Ace’s lose their leader due to some selfish high school student who killed a fashionista. I will uncover the truth, I must.” 

The elevator rumbled and finally came to its destination. This was no ordinary trial. The jury was in as much danger as the culprit, who was a member of the jury with them. There could be no naïve faith here, only pure analysis of the facts and evidence. This was a trial of life and death. One of hope and despair. One of trust and betrayal. The only question on everyone’s mind: Who killed Kyoko Kirigiri?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any theories, I'd love to hear them in the comment section!


	6. First Trial Part One: A Patrolman's Account

The students exited the elevator to a room with 16 podiums with nameplates screwed onto them and red curtains draped throughout with a judge’s seat towering over it all. Each student stepped to the plate with their name, Celestia stood between Byakuya and Leon.

“Those signs…Do they need to be there?” Chihiro pointed to two portraits next to each other, one Sakura’s and one Kyoko’s, with pink crosses painted in an ‘x’ formation.

“Why of course they do!” Monokuma said from high up on the judge’s chair. “You’d want to forget your fellow students just because they’ve gone to the great beyond? And you call me evil!”

“I think we need an explanation of how all this is supposed to work if we’re supposed to do this properly.” Makoto says. 

“And an explanation you’ll have!” Monokuma explained. “To put it simply, one person among you is the blackened, aka the murderer. It’s up to your diligent work to discover who it is and vote for them! If the majority votes for the blackened, the blackened will be punished! But if the majority votes for someone who isn’t the blackened, then everyone but the blackened will be punished!”

“What a sick game.” Mondo growled.

“A sick game indeed, but one we have no choice in abstaining to.” Celestia said. 

“To begin,” Kiyotaka yelled “Let’s establish the timeline for today. 

At 8:00 the majority of us had breakfast together in the cafeteria.  
One hour later, at 9:00, we were given Monokuma’s ‘Career Busting’ motives.  
At 10:00, I left my room and went around to each dorm room, remaining outside the dorms the entire time, offering my resignation to each one of you.  
At 10:45, Kyoko died of poisoning in the cafeteria.  
At 11:00, I returned to my room  
And at 2:00, Celestia discovered the body.”

“That seems about right.” Said Leon. “But where do we go from there?” 

“Well, I think we should start with the scene of the crime.” Sayaka speculated.

“Well about that,” Aoi started “Are we sure Kyoko died in the cafeteria?”

“W-What are y-you on about?” Toko stuttered.

“She…Might be right.” Chihiro said. “There’s no evidence that Kyoko died in the cafeteria.”

“That’s incorrect.” Celestia interjected. “The vomit next to the body confirms that she was poisoned in the cafeteria, nowhere else.”

“I guess that proves it. You can’t move vomit, not without a big mess, that is.” Aoi said.

“So we kn-know that she died of poisoning…B-But how was she poisoned!” Toko asked. 

"Is there any way to even figure that out?" Leon asked.

"If no one here is a doctor, how are we supposed to know?" Chihiro asked.

“Isn’t it obvious!” Yasuhiro stated. “Kyoko was chilling in the cafeteria all by herself and was suddenly shot in the neck with a poison dart!”

“No, that’s wrong!” Makoto yelled. 

“What, did I say something wrong?” Yasuhiro asked.

“Ah, sorry I yelled. But yeah, I did notice an inconsistency. The Monokuma file says that there as no obvious injuries, so getting hit with a dart wouldn’t make sense, it’d leave a mark.” Makoto explained. “And…One more thing bothered me.”

“I think I know what you mean, Makoto.” Celestia said. “The other glass, correct?”

“Yeah.” Makoto continued. “If Kyoko was alone, why would she have two drinks?”

“Following that reasoning,” Kiyotaka began “Kyoko was sitting with someone when she was poisoned, who managed to spike her drink without her noticing!”

“So all we need to do is discover who Kyoko was with and we know who the culprit is!” Aoi cheered.

“To discover who was with Kyoko, let us first decide who certainly wasn’t.” Byakuya said.

“I can assist with this!” Kiyotaka stated. “As I said already, I went to each and everyone one of your rooms to offer my resignation. I know who was in their room and who wasn’t during the hours of 10 and 11.” 

“And it’d one be one of the people who weren’t in their room that is the culprit!” Hifumi said. “A flawless plan!”

“I believe that you told me that Kyoko, Aoi, Chihiro, Leon, Mondo, and Sayaka all didn’t answer their doors. So we have a list of 5 suspects.” Celestia recounted. “Let us discuss.”

“Who knew being alone in my room was going to be such a good alibi.” Makoto chuckled.

“S-So we’re sure there are no b-back doors out of our r-rooms?” Toko inquired. 

“I searched my room up and down, there’s no other way in or out other than the front door.” Kiyotaka explained.

“I was in the AV room trying to rewire some of those CD players.” Aoi admitted.

“I was in the empty classroom. I don’t have a dojo, so I substituted planks in with desks.” Mondo said.

“I took a walk to the clear my mind, only to the bathroom and then back to my dorm. Kiyotaka must have come to my dorm while I was gone, he only just missed me while he was inside another person’s dorm.” Sayaka said.

Celestia was listening intently to every word. Her mind flashed back to Kiyotaka’s account of his patrol. The moment she heard a contradiction, she shot words from her mouth like a bullet out of a gun.

“To assume we’d fall for that deception, you are sorely mistaken.” Celestia said clear as day in response to Sayaka.

“What are you talking about, Celestia?” Sayaka asked, obviously distraught.

“I’m talking about the obvious lie you just told.” Celestia explained. “Kiyotaka was outside of the dorms the entire time, he would’ve seen if you returned to your dorm during that time.”

“Celestia is right!” Kiyotaka agreed. “Sayaka, I never saw you return. So that means you are lying!”

“No…I wouldn’t…Fine, I’m sorry.” Sayaka, rather defeated. 

“No way dude! She killed Kyoko?” Yasuhiro exclaimed.

“What?! No, no way I did! I do admit that I lied but that’s because…The truth is a bit embarrassing.” Sayaka said rather quietly.

“You don’t have to say it like that!” Leon said, his face a bit pink. “The truth is, we were swimming together. We didn’t want you guys getting the wrong idea so I went back to my dorm and she stayed back in the pool area and dried off there…In my shirt.” 

“I don’t need my crystal ball to imagine all the lewd things that happened…” Toko said, her hair twirling around her finger.

“That kinda talk is exactly why I didn’t tell you!” Sayaka said.

“Leon and Sayaka actually have alibis, it seems.” Celestia reasoned. “So that leaves Chihiro, Mondo, and Aoi.

“Umm...”Chihiro started. “I was actually in my room, but didn’t answer my door.”

“How annoying.” Stated Byakuya. “Three suspects, none of which have other people to back up their alibis.”

“Well,” Hifumi said. “If we are at an impasse, perhaps we could look at other aspects of this murderous fiasco! I distinctly recall her outfit being different than earlier that day. Why?”

“Speaking of that,” Mukuro began “I discovered something in the bathroom trash, which I am sure will be of some significance.” As she said this, she raised a clump of purple cloth. After a second, Celestia realized what it was. Kyoko Kirigiri’s pantsuit, and it looked exactly like it did when she had it on earlier today.


	7. First Trial Part Two: A Motive for Changing

“And why did you wait so long before presenting this evidence?” Asked Byakuya.

“I didn’t think Kyoko’s pantsuit was going to matter much. I still don’t.” Speculated Mukuro. “There’s no stains, fibers or hairs. I don’t see any reason whatsoever the blackened would go out of their way to hide Kyoko’s clothes.” 

“So did the blackened take Kyoko’s pantsuit off after killing her?” Aoi asked.

“There’s no evidence of that. So Kyoko must’ve changed all on her own.” Sayaka reasoned. 

“But why’d the killer bother hiding it?” Yasuhiro questioned. “It doesn’t make sense!”

“Well, if there’s no evidence on the pantsuit, the pantsuit itself is evidence.” Byakuya reasoned. “Kyoko having two different outfits with her must mean something.”

Celestia agreed with Byakuya’s reasoning. The pantsuit had to be evidence of something or else the blackened wouldn’t have considered it worth disposal. 

“Why would Kyoko have more than one outfit?” Celestia questioned herself within her own mind. Her surroundings quieted as she retreated into her own thought, the answer on the tip of her mind. Slowly, she pieced together the string of letters that would crack the case open. F-A-S-H-I-O-N-S-H-O-W

“If Kyoko had her regular outfit with her while she was wearing a different outfit, then at one point while outside of her dorm, she must have changed clothes during some kind of fashion show.” Celestia explained.

“W-What?!” Toko screamed. “Y-You mean like a fahsion show for one? What a pervert!” 

“Hold up, I think I might see what you’re saying.” Said Leon. “Kyoko was a fashionista, the Super High School Level Fashionista. It wouldn’t be strange if she agreed to model an outfit for someone..”

“I agree with your reasoning, Leon. And I would like to explain how the situation unfolded, from the beginning.” Celestia continued. “The plan started after Monokuma distributed the motive at 9 this morning but before Kiyotaka started making his rounds at 10. The killer asked Kyoko to meet them in the cafeteria for drinks and, likely, for fashion talk, as that's the only topic that would've allowed the following events to unfold. The killer had a yellow sundress, which they had taken in the cafeteria along with the poison, planning on asking her to model it. And Kyoko did so, going somewhere private to change. What Kyoko didn’t know was that it was a distraction, and while she was changing, the murder slipped some poison into her drink, likely taken from the warehouse or nurse’s office. She returned in the dress and they continued to drink. But soon after, Kyoko sensed something was wrong. She knocked over her pink drink and judging from the spill pattern, it got on the killer. From the vomit, we know the poison itself made her throw-up or that she suspected she was poisoned and made herself. After she died, the killer took Kyoko’s pantsuit and went to dispose of it, but didn’t expect Kiyotaka to be guarding the hall. In a panic, they went to the restroom and tossed it in the trash.”

“Celestia, your deductive powers are over 9,000...Ah, that was weird, sorry.” Makoto said, getting swept up in the excitement.

“Hmm, but the culprit still alludes us!” Bellowed Hifumi. “Surely I could guess at random, but I wish not to rely on my luck all too much.”

“Well,” Celestia continued. “There are three people among us whose don’t have an alibi. But…” 

“Celestia, you’re hesitating now? You’ve been nothing but amazing in your deductions thus far! Continue!” Kiyotaka ordered.

“Kyoko would’ve considered it suspicious for some of us to ask for her to model, she was extremely sharp-witted. It would’ve had to make sense for the killer to ask her about fashion. And of the three of us who don’t have an alibi, a Martial Artist, a Programmer, and an Idol…I think it is obvious who would garner the least suspicion from Kyoko.”

“Wait…Celestia.” Chihiro began, her voice meak. “You aren’t accusing me, are you? We’re friends!”

“If Celestia is right about everything else…” Mondo began. “You’re the only one who fits, Chihiro.” 

“My gamble was right on the money!” Yasuhiro cried. 

“I…No, you’re wrong.” Chihiro said, tears falling rapidly from her face. “I couldn’t have killed Kyoko, I was in my room!” 

“But you don’t have any way to confirm that.” Byakuya stated coldly. “Thus it can be assumed you are lying about that.”

“No!” Chihiro now yelled through the tears streaming down her face. “It doesn’t make sense. Celestia said that the murderer stained their clothes, which means they’d have to wash it off! That means that Leon must be the killer since he was seen wet!” 

“But I was with Leon when the murder occurred.” Sayaka said. “It couldn’t have been him.”

“But it doesn’t make sense!” Chihiro yelled. “If I had done it, I would’ve had to wash off my clothes…But there’s no evidence that I washed my clothes in the bathroom or the pool!” Chihiro’s rant became almost inaudible due to the sobs. “I-If there’s no evidence then it’s a-all just speculation…”

“I found pink fibers in the sink in the bathroom.” Mukuro said. “I investigated near the drain and found fibers that look like they came from some clothes. Once again, I didn’t realize the significance of this evidence, so I didn’t bring it up. But I now see they must’ve come from your blazer.”

“No…you didn’t….” Chihiro fell to her knees and continued sobbing.

“Welp it seems like the discussion has concluded!” Monokuma cheerfully spoke. “It’s Voting Time! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? Let’s see!” Monokuma said.

Celestia watched as the screen on the inside of her podium lit up and showed all of her fellow classmates. Flashing in bright letters were “Select the culprit”. Celestia pressed the image of Chihiro. After a few moments, Monokuma spoke again.

“Congratulations! Your suspicions were correct, the mastermind behind the poisoning of Kyoko Kirigiri was Chihiro Fujisaki!”  
Chihiro was no longer moving, she just laid her head on the podium and sobbed.

“Chihiro…Why would you do such a thing?” Kiyotaka asked.

Chihiro raised her head and looked at the detective. “I…Didn’t want to disappoint them…My fans on the outside….I had to be strong, for them.”

“I would like to know if it happens to be related to the fact that I found Kyoko’s pantsuit in the men’s restroom?” Mukuro asked.

“W-Wait…Is the Idol secretly a boy?!” Toko screeched. “T-That’s what the cards s-showed me, but I s-said no w-way a girl that cute is a b-boy!”

“Well I am a bear that loves a pleased audience, so gather round my students, and let me tell you the tail of poor Chihiro.” Monokuma said.

“Please don’t.” Chihiro said, with almost no strength left in him.

“Growing up, Chihiro was always teased for being girlish. The boys would pick on him for being weak and scrawny. But the one place where no one picked on him for his girlish and cutesy features was singing practice, his soprano voice was the star of the show! He decided he wanted to be popular with everyone, not just those who were in his music classes with him. So he threw on a skirt to hide the fact that he was a girlish boy, and from then on was perceived by the world as a girl, one that everybody thought was undeniably charming and overwhelmingly cute! Nowadays he has an army of fans, mainly boys I should add, that would be devastated to learn his secret.” Monokuma explained to the rest. 

“I’m sorry everyone…If any of you get out…Please don’t tell them.” Chihiro stood up and wipes his tears from his eyes. “I have one question though, Mukuro. You said you found pink fibers from my blazer in the sink, but I didn’t need to clean my blazer. It’s pink, and so was Kyoko’s drink, it blended right in.”

“I figured that.” Mukuro explains. “But with the way you were acting, I knew it was you. I had to lead the others to believe the same.” 

“Wait a second!” Aoi marched over to Mukuro. “You presented fake evidence?”

“Yes, I did.” Mukuro said coldly. “I knew Chihiro was the culprit, everyone did. I didn’t want to leave anyone in any doubt.”

Chihiro shook his head and wiped his eyes once more and looked at everyone individually, then focused on Celestia. “I just wanted to say…I’m sorry. And don’t forget to smi-“ His words were cut off by a metal contraption shooting out from a set of iron doors and wrapping around his neck. He instinctively placed both his hands on it and tried prying it off, to no avail. Celestia stepped forward, her hand reaching for him as he was pulled away, but she wasn’t fast enough. The chain that was connected to the neck brace yanked Chihiro back, into the set of iron doors. They shut hard and the LED signs that were off suddenly flickered on with the words “Execution in Progress.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm looking forward to writing this execution!


	8. Execution: Rock 'Til You Drop!

Chihiro was dragged through a hallway as he scratched at the metal band around his neck. He was dragged all the way to what looked like an empty stadium floor with a large stage on the opposite side. Chihiro was placed halfway between the doors to the outside and the stage. Suddenly, on the stage, Monokuma sprung up on the stage with a microphone and began singing loudly into it while dancing across the stage with a banner above him that read “MONOKUMA’S WORLD TOUR OF DESPAIR”. The noise coming from the speakers was horrendously loud, Chihiro covered his ears to block out the sound. 

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The doors began to be pounded on from the outside, causing Chihiro to turn his attention there. Out of no where, the doors slammed open as dozens of Monokumas, all holding or wearing different Monokuma related merchandise, charged forward to get the best standing near the stage. Chihiro, still covering his ears, moved back and forth, dodging one Monokuma after another in a rhythmic pattern that followed the music provided by the Monokuma on the stage. More and more Monokumas poured in, but Chihiro kept managing to move out of the pathway and avoided getting trampled, almost as if he was dancing to the music. But suddenly, the Monokuma on the stage pulled out a large electric guitar. The Monokuma began shredding the guitar, the rhythm of the song getting faster and faster, and the Monokuma crowd pouring in at a faster rate. One Monokuma shoulder checked Chihiro, then another struck his other side. Smoke began to rise from the Monokuma’s paws on the stage caused by the friction between its paws and the strings, as the music got faster and faster. Chihiro could no longer keep up with the absurdly fast music, and one Monokuma crashed right into his stomach at full speed, causing him to fall backwards and spit up neon pink blood. The smoke that was emanating from the performing Monokuma’s paws now lit into a full-on fire that quickly caught the low hanging banner above him ablaze. All of the Monokumas that were rushing in stopped and turned around in panic, running away from the flames. Chihiro smiled at the realization there were no more to worry about trampling him, but the smile quickly faded as he heard all of the Monokumas that previously passed him and were surrounding the stage turn around and head toward the exit at full speed, flailing their arms as the banner fell and the flames. The crowd was soon upon him. Monokumas ran over his legs and arms and everywhere else as they hurriedly ran to the exit. As the last of them ran out, and the flaming pieces of banner dimmed, Chihiro was barely breathing as the footprints caused by the bears were evidence on his skirt and blazer. He held up a hand as if reaching for the exit. The last Monokuma in attendance, the one that was on the stage, walked up to Chihiro and played a loud chord on the burnt guitar. It then raised it above its head then crashed it down into Chihiro's head, with Chihiro looking up at it in horror. Neon pink splattered everywhere as Chihiro's body went limp.


	9. The Second Floor Opens-Aoi Freetime!

It was the day after Chihiro was punished for murdering Kyoko. The fact that she even had to acknowledge that had happened turns Celestia’s stomach, but life moved on. Monokuma had opened up another floor, and the class had split up to cover all the new ground, three groups of three and one group of four. Celestia had gone with Kiyotaka, Mondo, and Mukuro to investigate the library. The room is filled to the ceiling with books of varying sizes on the shelves on one side of the room. A desk stands near one of the walls with a lamp plugged into an extension cord. In the center was an extremely thick dictionary on a pedestal.

“My, look at all of these novels!” Kiyotaka said enthusiastically while picking one up and skimming through it.

“One would think that if Monokuma wished for us to kill to leave here, he wouldn’t give us so many ways of entertaining ourselves. I even saw a sauna on our walk here.” Celestia wondered.

“You can drown in a pool, die of heat exhaustion in a sauna, and take a look at these books.” Mukuro tossed one that she had read a portion of to Celestia, who caught it. “Everything here is designed with murder in mind.”

“Space Genocide: A Sci-FI Story of Murder in Space?” Celestia read aloud curiously. “I see. It’s safe to assume they’re all related to homicide?” She looked at one of the shelves and at the titles of the books that sat on it. She saw a pattern emerge. Each shelf had a different genre of books, despite being all about murders, and had the books sorted alphabetically. The top shelf having books beginning in “A” and “B’, the “A”’s on the left and the “B”s on the right, the second having books beginning with “C” and “D”, all the way down to “Y” and “Z”.

“How unfortunate. I’ve read the vast majority of materials on murders already.” Kiyotaka mumbled, placing the book he had back where it had been. “It’s unlikely there are many books in here I haven’t read as of yet.”

“This dictionary seems to be the only book I can see not tied to death.” Mondo chimed in. “It’s a hefty thing all right.” He says while lifting it up with one hand.

“Well, this room doesn’t have much use. I’m not much of a reader, especially when it comes to death. Firsthand experience is the only kind that can be useful when it comes to that.” Mukuro said coldly. 

“Well there is still one part of the library we haven’t investigated.” Kiyotaka said. “That door, it must be a storage closet or something, but we must inspect every nook and cranny!”  
Celestia rolled her eyes and chuckled at the detectives never faltering enthusiasm for investigation. She walked over to the door and turned the handle, her finger armor making a slight noise as the metal hit the bronze doorknob. As she pulled it, the door wouldn’t open.

“Ah, it’s locked.” Celestia said as she looked at the keyhole.

“That must be what this is for.” Mondo held up a silver key. “It was underneath the dictionary, I thought it was weird.”

“I’ll take that.” Mukuro swiped the key from Mondo’s hand and walked to the door, unlocking it and walking in while pocketing the key.

Inside the room was what appeared to be an archive, with filing cabinets all in the room. The four of them began opening the cabinets and flipping through them. As opposed to the novels outside, which seemed to all be fiction or at least dramatic reenactments of real events, these were formally written case reports, all in alphabetical order  
.  
“Everson’s Butcher. Faris Wheel Fanatic. Genocide Jack. These are all very high profile cases! Why in the world are these police reports here?” Kiyotaka questioned.

“I haven’t the faintest idea.” Celestia responded. “However, I think it best that we keep this archive locked, lest any of our fellow classmates get any creative ideas.” 

“Makes sense. I’ll lock up, can’t trust one of you peasants with this important job.” Mukuro stated. Celestia always had an urge to tell Mukuro exactly how she felt about being talked down to, but Mondo, always the obedient shadow, deterred her. 

The group made their way back downstairs to the dining area. Celestia couldn’t help but stare at the exact spot where she had found Kyoko’s lifeless body, but she quickly shook the feeling of dread off. Most of her classmates were there, everyone except for Hifumi, Yasuhiro, and Makoto. After waiting for about 5 minutes, Junko began speaking.

“Sooo it seems three outta four of the groups are down, I bet those good for nothin’ boys are taking their time!” Junko crossed her arms. “Well, we’ll just get on with our summaries without them.” 

“Mukuro, Mondo, Kiyotaka, and I searched the library. The novels, all of which are meant for entertainment purposes, are categorized alphabetically on the shelves separated in sections based on genres. Rest assured they are all about death in some way.” Celestia explained.

“And there was this archive in there filled to the brim with actual police reports on homicides. They’re all pretty high profile cases too.” Mukuro continued. “But because some among us have undoubtedly considered the Chihiro route to the outside, the door will be kept locked. I have the only key.”

“You think that someone who truly considers homicide a viable option would be deterred from committing such a crime by being denied access to inspiration?” Questioned Byakuya. “Honestly, I would like to get my hands on files like those. Excellent references for a murder mystery novel I’m working on.”

“Wait, you’re working on a murder mystery novel? Now? Isn’t that a tad insensitive to our current situation?” Sayaka probed.

“Yeah man, that’s like, super fucked up.” Leon agreed.

Byakuya scoffed. “Write what you know, as they say. This ‘School Life of Mutual Killing’ has caused cogs in my brain to begin turning like never before. Trust is a beautiful irony as it is never reciprocated, one poetic lesson I’ve already learned here.”

“Hey man, you should shut the hell.” Mondo growled. “Martial arts teaches you to keep your calm, but assholes like you make me wanna lose it.” 

“Now now, let’s not delve into chaos! That’s what Monokuma wants, no doubt about it.” Junko interjected. “How about my group goes next?” After a few nods from the crowd, she continued. “Leon, Tokou, and my beautiful self, searched the classrooms on the second floor. Nothing of note, except that Tokou refuses to touch a dirty surface.” Junko said in a bitter tone as she stuck her tongue out at Tokou.

“D-Don’t slander my g-good name! I predict that a n-nasty illness will do me in, s-so I’ve taken some p-precautions!” Tokou says through the surgical mask on her face. “They really d-do have everything in that storage room.”

“Our group searched the bathrooms!” Aoi said happily. “Byakuya, Sayaka, and I made sure there was nothing of note in the second level restrooms. Sayaka and I checked the girl’s room, and Byakuya the boy’s.”

“Aoi and I didn’t find a thing.” Sayaka said frowning. 

“Not a clue turned up in the men’s room.” Byakuya proclaimed.

After concluding their report, Hifumi, Makoto, and Yasuhiro all walk in.

“Sorry dudes, we got caught up in our investigation of the sauna if you catch my drift.” Yasuhiro explained.

“I declare that the sauna is my very favorite realm in this school of horror.” Hifumi bellowed.

“Sorry guys, we started by just investigating but the stress kinda got to us. A rest in the sauna is exactly what we needed. But we did investigate it! The temperature is controlled from the outside from a thermostat on the wall opposite the door, which can’t be locked. There are some lockers, but unlike the ones in the pool, they aren’t actually attached to walls. Each locker is one of those tall ones with two doors, one on top and one on the bottom, and can be individually moved.” Makoto recapped their search. 

“Well that all seemed uber interesting!” Junko said, somewhat sarcastically. “No new clues on how to get out, but at least we have some reading materials and a sauna. Could be worse, ya know.”

“Well if we’re done here,” Leon said. “I think I’m gonna hit the pool-.”

“Hey, cool idea Leon!” Junko interrupted. “Today we’re gonna hit the pool, all of us! Call it a bonding moment!” 

“Hmm, swimming isn’t really my thing.” Aoi said with a sweet smile. “Electronics and water don’t typically mix.”

“I absolutely will not be swimming in the water that’s been contaminated with peasant filth.” Mukuro rolled her eyes as she spoke.

Junko stood up and began slowly walking around the table of students. “I guess I can’t make any of you come, but…” She dramatically turned her back to the other students, then spoke in a dark, despair-inducing tone. “Not even Monokuma can punish immoral brats like I can.”

No one spoke for a moment, Junko’s bubbly attitude was completely gone, replaced with a demanding tone that held the authority of a tyrannical queen. She then twirled around and smiled, throwing a peace sign in the air. “Just playing, of course. So I’m seeing you all there in an hour?” 

Celestia is used to the tactic of sheer intimidation, she’s had to use it many times on her subordinates, so she respects the fact that Junko is willing to use it in order to create a sense of unity among the classmates. Suddenly, there wasn’t a voice of opposition to Junko’s day at the pool. 

“Sweet, be there or be square, let’s say in an hour.” Junko said as she walked out of the cafeteria with a smile on her face. With her exit, the meeting was adjourned and people began walking to different areas before heading to the pool. Celestia was checking out the student store, specifically a certain whip that was on display when Aoi Asahina walked in.

“Oh, Celestia! I didn’t realize anyone was in here.” Aoi said, cheeks a bit red.

“Fret not, I’m simply perusing the store for items of interest. But while you’re here, might I ask you a question?” Celestia question.

“Oh, sure. What’s on your mind?” Aoi said.

“It’s about our esteemed Headmaster. He seems to be a feat of modern technology, an autonomous animatronic that moves so fluidly and has a personality of his own. Have you ever seen such programming?” Celestia inquired.

“Hmm, let me think.” Aoi puffed out her face as she thought. “I would definitely know if any public programmer had made such serious strides, I’m kinda the biggest name in the field of artificial intelligence, and I haven’t heard a peep. The team researching it must’ve had crazy secrecy surrounding the project.”

“It’s an interesting piece of technology, to say the least. I wouldn’t mind having a few to guard my motorcycle during the nighttime.” Celestia said with a laugh. “So what brought you into the field of artificial intelligence?”

“Believe it or not, it was really just a pastime. My younger brother's friends would always laugh at me when I would try to play sports with them, so I decided to stay inside and I ended up watching some tutorial videos online and learned some basic code. I took to it pretty easily, despite not being a big fan of math or science, typing on a computer made me feel at ease. The boys online never believed me when I told them I wrote the code myself, but eventually, I was noticed by these big organizations and given all the resources I need to improve my skills.” Aoi recounted. “Being recognized felt really good, but I still kinda wish that the other programers would respect me more. My good looks and figure leave some of them thinking I’m not serious about this work.”

“Aoi, I understand more than you make think. I myself am more petite than certain bikers in both my gang and rival gangs would first think. I think my approach to gaining their respect would be considered more…Violent than your dedication to your craft.” Celestia related.

“Don’t think I’m above some petty trojan horse email.” Aoi winked at Celestia as they laughed together. They walked to swimming pool locker area, swiping their E-Handbooks to enter the changing room. The other girls were already there, most already in their bathing suits.

“It appears we are a little late, our apologies.” Celestia said.

“It’s totally fine! You’re here, that’s all that matters.” Junko cheered. “Now while you guys change, I’m gonna be the first one in the pool!” Junko ran through the door leading to the pool, Celestia hearing a splash.

“Well, I don’t wanna be too behind!” Sayaka giggled as she followed Junko. The remaining girls who were already suited to swim all followed the two, while those who arrived late changed then went out. It seemed that everyone had followed Junko’s instructions and came for the day at the pool, even the more disagreeable of the group. Leon was swimming laps in the pool, the sheer speed at which he was moving was overwhelming, Sayaka swimming laps much slower by comparison. Hifumi, Aoi, Yasuhiro, and Makoto were all floating on their backs in a semi-circle, seemingly enjoying themselves to no end. Byakuya was sitting in a chair, reading a novel from the library. Mukuro was pretending to sunbathe on a towel laid out on the ground, Mondo, as per usual, 5 feet away from her. Tokou was doing a tarot card reading in the corner for Kiyotaka, who was watching with bated breath. 

“Dudes, why would we ever wanna leave a place where all of our needs are met, AND we get a pool. This is sweet!” Yasuhiro commented with his eyes closed.

“Actually being able to sunbathe would be nice.” Mukuro muttered.

“Leon, your speed is insane!” Sayaka said, out of breath while resting with her feet in the water next to Leon on the side of the pool.

“Believe it or not, I was born with it. I always hated going to practice.” Leon bragged.

Celestia laughed at her classmates. ‘Perhaps Yasuhiro was right.’ Thought Celestia. ‘Can we really live in harmony, in a place full of trust?’  
Unbeknownst to Celestia, this harmony wouldn’t last much longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a little hiatus, sorry about that! I am looking forward into getting back into this fanfic, though!


	10. Monokuma's Second Motive + Mondo's Freetime!

The class had been at least an two and a half hours since everyone arrived at the pool. Most people had been in the pool at least once, save for Byakuya, who was still reading his novel. Even Tokou ended up getting in, at the request of Sayaka. 

“T-This isn’t fun.” Said Tokou, while sitting on the steps that enter the pool, still in her medical mask from earlier. 

“You’ve told me that you spend most of your time inside, so swimming should she be a great change of pace!” Sayaka encouraged.

“I told you that in confidence, muscle head!” Tokou screeched, only to have Sayaka respond with laughter.

Meanwhile, Leon was teaching Kiyotaka how to back float.

“Like this?!” Yelled Kiyotaka, his arms and legs spread out in a star formation as he slowly began to sink, the only thing keeping him above water being Leon’s arms.

“Umm, not exactly.” Leon said while looking curiously at the detective.

“Hey Leon,” Makoto said. “I heard somewhere that swimmers are supposed to shave their legs to swim faster but…”

“Oh, you’re asking why I don’t? It’s the same reason I don’t cut my luscious locks.” Leon smiled as he crossed his arms, letting Kiyotaka sink into the water. “I’ve never needed the extra speed.”

“That’s…So impressive! I was on this one forum where I saw fanfics all about sports people, I even saw one about you and Saya-“ Makoto was cut off by Leon.

“You aren’t one of those people that write that creepy shit, are you?” Leon asked.

Makoto, face now bright red, shook his head as he put his hands up in defense. “Absolutely n-not! I just remembered since we’re talking!”

Leon laughed at the panicking author while Kiyotaka gasped for air as he came back up from underneath the water. The general mood of the room was reluctantly relaxed. They might not have been trapped in the school by choice, but being in the pool with people they have started to consider friends was nice. The mood of solidarity, of unity, was broken by a bone-chilling laugh emanating from the monitors.

“Upupupu. What a lovely site for my artificial eyes, students coming together after the awful murder of one of you by yet another classmate.” Monokuma’s voice rang through the swimming area, as no one made a sound. “Unfortunately I’ll have to cut this filler episode short, all students must report to the gymnasium for a special announcement.” 

The intercom shut off, and Byakuya slammed his book shut and stood up, adjusting his glasses, light reflecting off the lens. “Chapter 2 begins.” He then walked through the men’s changing room, out of the pool. 

“Hmm, my skin was getting wrinkly anyway.” Hifumi said as he made his way to the stairs to exit the pool.

Everyone that was in the pool dried off with the black towels that had been provided, changed back into their regular clothes and walked to the gymnasium with murmurs among the students about the intent of Monokuma’s call to the gymnasium.

“You d-don’t think he’s calling us in t-there just to k-kill us do you?” Tokou wondered.

“Don’t be silly, Tokou.” Sayaka smiled as she put a hand on her back. “I’m sure it’s an asinine rule change.”

“Let’s no rush to any conclusions.” Celestia interjected. “Just attending this event will reveal all, surely.”

Seemingly satisfied, the mutters stopped and the walk to the gym was silent. Celestia was the first of the group to enter the gymnasium, where Byakuya was already standing.

“It’s about time.” He said.

“Sorry for not being excited to meet with that bear.” Mukuro shot back.

“Tck, which is exactly why I would never write someone like you into one of my novels.” Byakuya continued. “You let your morals block out what’s actually happening. You’d rather not be in a mutual killing game, so you refuse to acknowledge you are. There’s nothing to gain by ignoring the bear when it calls for us.”

“You think that I don’t know how to handle reality?” Mukuro took a step towards Byakuya, Mondo at her back. “You don’t know the kinda stuff that the Super High School Level Heir has to deal with. I promise you, it’s much more than thinking up stories.”

Byakuya let out a laugh. “You wouldn’t be nearly as high and mighty in this place if that meathead wasn’t following you around like a lost puppy.” 

Mukuro scoffed, then continued. “Mondo, you’re to stop following me around. Period.” Mukuro said, her eyes no drifting from Byakuya.

“Mukuro, what are you talking about? Don’t let this prick get to you.” Mondo said to Mukuro, who still wasn’t looking at him. 

“You heard me.” Mukuro responded coldly. Suddenly, Mondo moved past Mukuro all together and got face to face with Byakuya.

“You little shit. What do you think you’re doing, trying to make people make stupid decisions?” A pink stream was coming from Mondo’s clenched fist, showing how tight he griping it. “I should…”

“You should what?” Byakuya taunted. “Prove that no matter what kind of discipline ‘Martial Arts’ instills in you, you’re a two-dimensional, rush-to-violence trope?” 

“Heyo! As much as I’d love to have a murder right here and now, let me get through my presentation first!” Screamed Monokuma, who had appeared on the podium in the front of the gym. 

“When did you get there?!” Aoi said, startled.

“I’m always here, for all of you! As your headmaster, my shoulder is always here for you to cry on.” Monokuma continued nonsensically. “I am truly invested in the success of all of you, which is why I have some presents for you.” It continued, producing 13 envelopes in its paws, throwing them across the room. Impressively, all of the envelopes landed at the feet of the person who shared a name with the one written across it. Celestia slowly picked the one that landed at her feet and tore it open, reading the paper that was hidden inside.

‘Celestia Ludenberg, your wants are pretty simple! Kill someone and get away with it and you’ll be given ten million big ones! For personal use or to go to some big project for the gang. Think of the kitty snacks you could buy with that kinda cash.’

She read the paper over once more, then again. Her hands began to shake as thoughts filled her mind.

‘Ten million…Imagine the resources that would be at my disposal, personal luxury as well as massive improvements to the Red Aces.’ For the first time since hearing of the cruel rules of this game, she pondered participating. Crime is a central part of her talent, would it be strange to do what comes naturally? Looking around at her classmates, she pushed the idea out of her head. Another key part of her talent is the bonds that she shares with all of her gang members, the sibling-like connection she forms with every member. This was natural for her to do, and she feels as if she has some kind of bond with everyone within the school. If she only had to think of herself, she may act on her impulses, but not with how she has conditioned herself.

“Bribing a detective is a crime, even if it isn’t with cash!” Kiyotaka yelled, crumpling the paper in hand.

“The bear isn’t stupid, we can infer that.” Byakuya reasoned. “Humans don’t respond well to threats, but when personal enrichment is on the line, we collapse under the pressure.”

“So it seems the motive is similar for us all.” Celestia said. “Bribery, in some way shape or form.”

“No one is gonna kill for some things. Life is way more precious than that!” Aoi reassured in a loud voice. 

“For any reasonable person, that is. You don’t know where people’s values lay.” Mukuro said, arms crossed and a smug grin on her face. “I’ve dealt with the bloodthirsty in the business world for years, the very height of materialistic assholes. So anyone that is thinking of killing for any kind of bribe, know that I can see right through any of you.”

“It shouldn’t need to be said that killing anyone for a bribe is the most immoral thing imaginable.” Junko said in a cutesy voice. 

“Sorry Monokuma, bro. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s bitin’.” Said Yasuhiro.

“Pupupu, if you’re so sure no one wants some cold hard cash or a shiny new car more than they like your company then be my guest and let your guard down.” Monokuma hopped behind its podium and didn’t come back out, seemingly done with the assembly.

“Well, that’s not how I usually want my swim sessions to end.” Leon said with a frown. “It’s too late start again, so I’m just gonna grab a bite to eat.”

“I guess the pool bonding exercise is over, so run wild! And be sure to be at breakfast tomorrow!” Junko declared, official giving the students the rest of the day to themselves. 

Celestia decided to follow the boy’s lead and spend some time in the sauna. After grabbing a cup of tea in the cafeteria, she made her way upstairs. Entering the sauna room, she saw Mondo getting a towel out of a locker.

“Oh, Mondo. My apologies, I didn’t realize someone was going to use the sauna.” Celestia said as she was turning to leave.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You can use it first.” Mondo said as he put the towel back.

“It’s interesting to me Mondo, I saw you interreact with Byakuya earlier, the anger was palpable. But every other time I’ve seen you, you’ve been extremely calm.” Celestia probe, now standing with him outside of the sauna in the locker room.

“Ha, I guess you saw my talent first hand then. Martial arts teaches you how to fight, sure, but the discipline it teaches you outdoes everything else.” Mondo explained. “But even after all these years, some punks still get to me.”

“Forgive me if this sounds rude, but many would find Mukuro’s behavior rather irritating.” Celestia inquired.

“I can see how you might think that, but you just don’t know her. That nasty business lady persona is what she has to put on to survive in that world. You can’t blame her.” Defended Mondo. “I’ve known her for years, it’s crazy lucky we even ended up at Hopes Peak together. Her place was guaranteed, but me? I wasn’t sure.” 

“Oh, not very confident in your talent after all?” Celestia said with a hint of surprise.

“Hell no, I guarantee I’m the best fighter in Japan. But for the past few years, I’ve been Mukuro’s bodyguard, I haven’t been in many tournaments or anything.” Mondo thought for a moment. “But I guess that time I took those 5 muggers out when they tried mugging us was all over the news.”

Celestia put her hand over her mouth. “My my, 5 on 1 and you prevailed? That is quite the feat indeed.” 

Mondo’s face got ever so slightly pink as he scratched the back of his head. “It was nothing, just a bunch of thugs with no training, they didn’t even know how to use the knives they brought.”

The two continue to debate the impressiveness of taking down 5 armed thugs until they both forgot that they had come all the way upstairs to use the sauna. Celestia made her way back to her room afterward, where she spent the remainder of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying this fic! Whose freetime event are you interested in seeing?


	11. A Storybook Murder!

Celestia woke with the morning announcement at 7 AM. She stretched, yawned, and put on her outfit for the day. She made her way to the cafeteria alone. Several of her classmates were already there, Junko, Kiyotaka, Makoto, Sayaka, and Mukuro were sitting around the table. 

“Morning biker babe!” Junko said with a big smile across her face. 

“Good morning, Ms. Ludenberg!” Kiyotaka yelled.

“Celestia, have you seen Mondo? He usually beats me here by at least 10 minutes.” Mukuro asked with a worried expression on her face.

“I do not believe I have, but the day is early and everyone sleeps late sometimes.” Celestia reassured.

“I’m sure he’s fine. I mean, most people aren’t here.” Makoto said while looking at the empty seats surrounding the table. “Besides, I don’t think anyone here would be messing with a guy like that.”

“Something…Something feels off. I’m just gonna go check his dorm real quick.” Mukuro stood up and rushed her way out of the cafeteria, leaving her coffee steaming on the table.

“You better not run in the halls!” Junko yelled at Mukuro, to no avail.

As the minutes passed, a couple other students came in, Leon and Hifumi.

“I sense the air is heavy with anticipation. What’s the matter?” Hifumi asked.

“Mukuro is just checking on Mondo, that’s all.” Sayaka smiled, the look of worry not being hidden completely. “Nothing to worry about.”

As if in response, Mukuro ran back into the cafeteria, panting heavily. 

“Mondo…Isn’t answering his door…We need to find him….” Mukuro managed to get out while attempting to catch her breath. 

“A missing person?!” Kiyotaka stood up, pushing his chair back several feet. “This calls for an immediate investigation!” He did a quick headcount and took a mental note of who was present and who wasn’t, then began speaking again. “We can easily cover both floors with the eight of us that are here. Mukuro, Celestia, Leon, and I will check the second floor. Makoto, Sayaka, Hifumi, and Junko, you cover the first floor. Break!” It took the students a moment before they realized Kiyotaka was serious, as his voice is equally intense when he isn’t. 

“It’s too early in the morning for this shit.” Leon groaned while not moving from his seat. Mukuro stood up and walked over to the red-haired athlete, who tensed in preparation.

“Please…Help me find Mondo.” Mukuro said in a controlled, soft voice. Leon, who was expecting a physical confrontation, looked taken aback. 

“Ah, I mean…Sure.” Leon said hesitantly. 

With that, the two groups split up. Celestia’s group climbed the stairs and began their search. No trace of anyone in the sauna and the restrooms were equally barren. Kiyotaka and Leon were to investigate the library while Celestia and Mukuro covered the classrooms, but that plan was foiled.

“Celestia, Mukuro!” Kiytoaka screamed at the girls from across the hallway. “We can’t access the library!” 

“How do you mean?” Celestia asked once they had convened at the library door.

“We mean that the door won’t budge.” Leon complained while demonstrating the stubborn door. It opened an inch but wouldn’t move past that.

“This door doesn’t lock, something must be blocking it!” Mukuro said while trying to push with Leon.

“Everybody needs to push at the same time. Get in formation and get ready to push.” Kiyotaka said while placing his hands on the door and moving to facilitate his three compatriots. Celestia followed suit, readying herself. “One, two….Three!” They all placed all their strength into their arms with the sole purpose to open the door. The unmistakable sound of wood against wood was heard clear as day as a large desk was moved out of the door's path. The four entered the room. Celestia's hands were shaking as she scanned the room, noticing several books on the floor and noting the desk being moved. But there was something in that room she couldn’t have missed. Underneath where the security camera was mounted, right next to the door to the archives, was Mondo Oowada, unmoving on the ground. The four ran to his side, Mukuro reaching him first, but as they were doing this there was a loud thud from the back of the room, but the four were preoccupied.

“Mondo! Mondo are you…” She spoke to him as she flipped him to his back, but her breath was taken away by the scene. The purple marks on his neck and the bloodshot eyes left no doubt, this was Mondo’s corpse. There was a crack of static over the intercom before Monokuma’s voice filled the empty void.

“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may spend however you’d like, the class trial will begin! All students who wish to investigate please report to the library.”

“No….Nonononono.” Mukuro began rocking Mondo back and forth with Mondo in her arms.

Kiyotaka put his hand on her shoulder. “Mukuro…He’s dead. You need to let us investigate the body.”

She stopped moving for a moment before laying Mondo’s head down softly on the floor. “Yeah…Of course. The detective needs to look over the crime scene. I’m just gonna…Just gonna go…Do something else.” Her voice was shaky as she stood up and left the room.

As Mukuro walked out of the room, the others poured in, even the others who weren’t at breakfast. 

“No…” Makoto said, mouth agape. 

“This can’t be happening again.” Cried Sayaka

“Would you look at that! Another murder.” Monokuma spoke, everyone was so focused on the corpse that they hadn’t even noticed it’s appearance. “As usual, a Monokuma file has been uploaded to your E-Handbooks. Make sure you find some juicy clues!” As per usual, Monokuma was gone just as fast as it appeared.

Kiyotaka, on the verge of tears, spoke up. “My fellow classmates, as unfortunate as it is, there has been another murder.” He was barely able to speak, each word spoken through gritted teeth. “We must investigate the scene or die.”

“I don’t wanna die, so let’s get to the bottom of this!” Said Yasuhiro

“Then the investigation will begin. And whoever killed Mondo, be prepared to burn for it.” Junko said in a monotone voice.

The group began looking about. Celestia decided to start with the Monokuma file.

‘Time of Death: Approximately 6 AM.  
Cause of Death: Strangulation.  
The body was discovered in the library around 8:15 AM’

Celestia crouched to get a look at the body. The purple marks on his neck certainly pointed towards strangulation, and the Monokuma file confirms it. What she didn’t notice at first glance was the extension cord that was around his neck. Looking closer, it was only part of an extension cord. The end of it was finely cut.

“The other piece of it is…Up there.” Kiyotaka said, pointing upwards. Celestia looked upwards to the security camera and saw the other end of the extension cord hanging from it. She retrieved it, which took some time and a desk to stand on, and inspected it. It appeared to be the other end of it. “My working theory…Is that he hanged himself. The cord snapped under the pressure. It would explain the locked room scenario.” He spoke the words solemnly. “But that’s a working theory only. We must investigate the rest of the scene first.”

Celestia moved towards the bookshelf that had several books knocked down, Sayaka was inspecting the pile. 

“Hey, something is strange. Look at these books.” Sayaka encouraged.

Celestia picked up the books and inspected them one by one, taking note of where in the alphabet the titles would go. Books beginning in A, D, E, H, I, L, M, P, Q, T, U, X, and Y were the ones that had been knocked down, creating a pattern on the shelf of the left section then the right section then the left section and so on until they reached the top. 

“It seems too weird to mean nothing, but I’m stumped. It’s a good thing we have some time to think.” Sayaka said. 

“I will rack my brain attempting to discover the reason.” Celestia said. “Now, might I ask, did you happen to find anything of note downstairs?” 

“Well, nothing really. I checked the kitchen and a knife was missing, but it’s probably just dirty or something.” Sayaka recounted.

With the books having been looked at, she turned her attention to the other areas of the library. The desk that was blocking the door was pushed from the center of the library. There was only one other area in the library to inspect. Luckily, Mukuro had given Kiyotaka the key to the archive before stepping out. He opened it, but nothing seemed different than before. The only aspect of the archive that differed at all was the doorknob, which now had scratches all over it and the wood surrounding it.

“This entire scene is in disarray. I wonder, are all the differences truly caused by whatever struggle occurred?” Celestia pondered allowed.

“I can confirm that it wasn’t like this last night.” Byakuya, who was now standing in the archive doorway, said. “I was here last night, and everything was in order, down to the extension cord.”

“Well, at least we know that! Thank you Byakuya. That testimony will help justice prevail.” Kiyotaka assured.

Celestia wanted to check on a few more things before the trial, but Monokuma had different plans.

“Hey kiddies, it’s time for the trial! Get your butts down to the elevator!” Monokuma screamed over the intercom, announcing to all that the investigation face was over. All the students made their way down the stairs to the room with the elevator. Mukuro was the last to arrive, but the pitiful face she was wearing earlier was replaced with one of sheer anger. As the bodies poured onto the elevator, Celestia could only think of the forthcoming events. Who killed Mondo Oowada? Did they really do it because of some materialistic prize? Who betrayed the group's trust, and will they be able to discover the truth? She thought this all the way down, until the moment the door opened, exposing the same trial room as before.


	12. Second Trial Part One: Hidden Figures

The students once again made their way to their respective podiums, taking a long somber look at Mondo’s crossed out portrait. Monokuma explained the rules of the class trial once more, but the students didn’t seem to care. 

“And to get this party started, how about you all start with the cause of death!” Monokuma finished its instructions.

“Mondo died because someone strangled him, the Monokuma file says that clear as day!” Makoto began.

“So we know that was strangled, but what strangled him?” Aoi asked.

“The culprit probably strangled him with their bare hands!” Leon explained.

“No, that’s quite incorrect.” Celestia interjected. She was frustrated with how pointless some of the debates in these trials were, even the most obvious of details were put into question. “We found an extension cord around his neck, it couldn’t be more obvious that it was the murder weapon.”

“That’s partly correct anyway.” Junko said. “But according to my investigation, I’m gonna go ahead and float the idea that Mondo offed himself!” She said in a cheery tone. 

“Interesting assertion, care to explain your logic?” Byakuya asked with his arms crossed.

“Let me spell it out for ya. We found an extension cord around the victim's throat and the other half was hanging ‘round the surveillance camera. He made a noose out of the cord and it snapped after he died!” Junko explained in a confident, authoritative voice.

“That seems about right. It’s the only way to explain how to room was locked, no one killed anyone after all!” Yasuhiro agreed in a happy tone, ecstatic that there was a way of explaining everything where there’s no execution.

“Junko, that’s a theory based on solid logic. In fact, I had a similar one in the beginning of this investigation.” Kiyotaka began. “But there’s one flaw. Celestia, I believe you’re the one that first noticed it.”

Celestia thought for a moment, and the answer became clear. 

“The ends of the cord weren’t snapped, they were cut.” Celestia spoke calmly and confidently. “If you were correct, and the weight of Mondo’s body caused the cord to break, it wouldn’t be as finely cut as it was.” 

Junko was completely taken aback and responded loudly. “You question me? You’re wrong you’re wrongwrongwrongwrong! How dare you? You’re an underling, peasants don’t question the QUEEN! If it was cut, what was it cut with, huh?!”

“Sayaka, while you were searching downstairs you discovered that a knife was missing, correct? That could very easily be what had been used.” Celestia explained.

“That’s right, that’s right!” Sayaka cheered as Celestia deduced the way the cord was cut.

After a moment of dead silence following Junko’s outburst, she took a deep breath then spoke again. “But now that I think about it, I totally get it. Sorry ‘bout that, hehe.” Junko cocked her head and showed a very wide grin.

“It’s okay, Junko! If you’d like, I can recap how we found the body so we all have the same amount of information. After we split up to search for Mondo, Leon and I went to inspect the Library but found the door barricaded. With the help of Mukuro and Celestia, we pushed our way through. It turned out it was a desk that had been pushed in front of the door that was blocking it. We rushed over, heard a thud, and then…We found the corpse.” Kiyotaka explained in a formal tone befitting of a professional detective.

“Umm…Well if it wasn’t a suicide, then how did the culprit lock the room? You guys said that there was a desk in front of the door, how’d that happen.” Sayaka asked.

“I-It’s n-not possible, the victim must have killed himself, it doesn’t m-make sense otherwise!” Tokou asserted in an unstable voice. 

“Is that true?” Makoto said. “Because there is a way that someone could have killed Mondo and locked the room.” The more astute people in the room picked up on what he was implying immediately.

“Are you seriously implying that the murderer stayed in the room with Mondo’s corpse?” Though it was a question, Byakuya’s words felt more like an indictment of Makoto.

“Just hear me out, will you! The Monokuma file says that the time of death was around 6 and that the body was discovered at 8:15, 2 hours isn’t that long for a person to hide!” Makoto defended his line of reasoning vehemently to the class, but his words were directly focused at Byakuya.

 

“Makoto, bro, that seems a bit far-fetched. Even I wouldn’t put money on that claim.” Yasuhiro said.

“I don’t see any evidence supporting your theory, Mr. Naegi.” Hifumi said.

No evidence? Celestia thought about the moment the four of them had busted through the door, they had all been preoccupied with Mondo to pay attention to anything else. But there was something that happened that could support the idea that the murderer stayed in the room.  
“Far-fetched, perhaps. However, there is evidence supporting Makoto’s assertion. Might I reference Kiyotaka’s testimony just now? When we entered the library, there was a distinct thud. What else could’ve made a noise than another person?” 

“So one of you sat in a room with Mondo’s corpse for 2 hours.” Mukuro’s voice was quiet, but the anger was causing it to shake. “Which one of you…Which one of you killed him!” 

“So we know that someone was in the room when we bust in…That’s super fucking creepy.” Leon said in an exasperated voice. “But does that really change anything?” 

“It changes everything about this case!” Kiyotaka yelled so loud that Leon flinched. “Think about it, if the killer never left the scene, then those of us that were at breakfast now have an alibi. So the only suspects are…Byakuya Togami, Tokou Fukawa, and Yasuhiro Hagakure!”

“W-What do you mean! I didn’t k-kill anyone!” Tokou yelled as she pulled out hair in clumps.

“Where do you get off accusing me!” Yasuhiro pointed an accusatory finger at Kiyotaka. Despite the other two accused completely losing their cool, Byakuya seemed fine with being in the spotlight.

“So, one of us three killed the martial artist then? I do have another detail I would like explained. Where, pray tell, did we hide? Because there isn’t any place in the library where someone could obscure their presence.” Byakuya spoke with a smirk on his face. If he truly is the murderer, Celestia thought, why on Earth would he show such open amusement in hindering the trial? Is this is simply a double bluff? If only she was more familiar with the gambling world. 

“Was there anywhere that someone could hide or is this theory just BS?” Leon said. 

“You couldn’t be behind a bookshelf, they were attached to the wall.” Sayaka reasoned.

“Oh, I know! I know! I bet they hid in the archive.” Aoi said.

“No, I’m afraid that is wrong.” Celestia said in a restrained voice while mindlessly twirling her hair in between her fingers. “The archive was locked, the only person with the key was with us when we discovered the body.”

“Then there goes the theory that fingered us.” Yasuhiro shrugged his shoulders with a smile on his face. “It sucks to be at square one and all, but I’d be lyin’ if I said it didn’t feel good to be vindicated.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you Yasuhiro, but there’s another place that someone could have been hiding and even evidence that the culprit hid there!” Kiyotaka said. 

Celestia thought for a moment, what was Kiyotaka thinking? What evidence wasn’t she thinking of? What evidence was there? 

“The Bookshelf.” Celestia said. “The culprit hid on top of the bookshelf. The evidence that Kiyotaka was referring to is undoubtedly the books knocked onto the floor, it’s evidence of the culprit using the shelves as a ladder. They could have climbed upwards and hidden atop it, leaving the books knocked off.”

“Whaaaaaaaaat!” Hifumi screamed, so taken aback that he took a step backward. 

“So it’s proven beyond a doubt that the culprit hid in the room, so the suspects are once again Byakuya, Tokou, and Yasuhiro. But where do we go from there?” Makoto asked.

That was the question that was on everyone’s mind. Accusatory eyes shot between the three, the gambler with extreme hair, the shuttering medium, and the confident author. It seemed that they had gone over all the evidence, but there must be something that would expose the one that killed Mondo, but what piece of the puzzle was it?


	13. Second Trial Part Two: Revelations Related to Ignorance

“Umm, are we really gonna have to guess?” Aoi asked.

“It’s either Tokou or Byakuya cause it sure as hell isn’t me! I’d gamble on fifty-fifty odds.” Yasuhiro said, talking faster than he was before. “After all, there’s no more evidence.” 

“Y-You liar!” Tokou refuted Yasuhiro’s statement. “There’s o-one more piece of evidence. And the spirits are telling me that you don’t want us to inspect it.” She said as she whipped out a crystal ball from seemingly nowhere. 

“Hm, other evidence? Tokou, could you mean the scratch marks on the archive door?” Kiyotaka asked.

“Y-Yes! I don’t know why, but it’s of immense importance!” Tokou stuttered as she glared into the crystal ball.

“Well, it obviously shows that someone tried to break into the archive.” Sayaka said.

“Actually, it’d be a pretty good place to hide if it wasn’t locked. The culprit probably tried breaking into it to hide.” Leon speculated.

That’s it! 

“I know who the culprit of this case is.” Celestia said, causing all eyes to turn to her. “Follow my line of reasoning, if you will. The murder was obviously premeditated, there was too much detail for this to be a spur of the moment crime of passion. But if it was planned prior to the murder occurring, then why does it appear that the place where they hid themselves seem thought of on the spot.”

The was a moment where the others thought of what the implications of her assertion were.

“Well, they must not have planned on having to find somewhere to hide-Ah!” Kiyotaka slammed his hands on his podium in surprise, seemingly now on the same page as Celestia.

“Exactly. The culprit didn’t know that the archive would be locked, and didn’t plan for it being so.” Celestia explained.

“Honestly I'm not sure why we are going on the assumption that everyone knew it would be locked, I didn't even know that door could be locked at all.” Hifuimi said. 

“That’s because we discussed it the day we searched the school, and there was one group of three that wasn’t present when we got to that portion of the discussion.” The class was hanging onto Celestia’s every word.

“I remember that! The group was Makoto, Hifumi, and Yasuhiro! Everyone else was there and heard about the door being locked!” Junko yelled why pointing at Yasuhiro.

“Hmph, so the culprit is undone by his own ignorance.” Byakuya said while crossing his arms. 

“That isn’t true! There’s no way I killed anyone! You don’t even have any evidence!” Yasuhiro defended himself with a loud, desperate voice.

“Perhaps if I looked at things from the beginning, you’ll realize that you are the only suspect that makes sense.  
It all started at 6 AM. Mondo, for some reason or another, decided to enter the library. There’s no way he could’ve known that this would lead to his death. The culprit, who was laying in wait, took the extension cord that had been used to plug in the lamp and strangled Mondo with it. They took the knife they had taken from the kitchen and cut the cord in two, placing one end around the victim's neck and one around the surveillance camera, hoping to make us think that Mondo had committed suicide. Afterward’s, they pushed the desk in front of the door, hoping that no one would consider homicide a possibility if he died in a locked room. And now, the culprit simply had to hide somewhere in the library. They had planned on hiding in the archive but panicked when the door was locked. You see, the culprit had no way of knowing the archive could be locked, as they were in the sauna when the group was informed of this. They even went as far as to try to open it by force with the knife. Having no other choice, the culprit climbed the bookshelf and hid there. And when the body was found, they simply hopped down and left, causing a thud which the four of us heard.”

As she spoke, Yasuhiro started sweating bullets. It seemed as if they were the only ones in the room, their eyes never parting. 

“The only one that wasn’t present at the morning meeting or at breakfast has to be the culprit. And that is you, Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Super High School Level Gambler. Please tell me if there is any perceived flaw in my logic, and I will explain to you why you are wrong.” Celestia presented the facts calmly and confidently as if she had been there and witnessed the murder herself.

“No…Way…Dude….” Yasuhiro had his head down, no longer bothering to refute the evidence that had been presented.

"So you did it, you bastard." Mukuro spoke, her words seething with contempt.

“Well well well, this seems to be the falling action portion. So let’s go ahead and vote! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?” Monokuma said, standing up in his judge's chair. After they all selected the person who they would vote for, the result was what everyone expected.

“Hiro, why! You’ve been saying this entire time that we should get used to living here…” Sayaka asked, tears forming in her eyes.

“I did this so I could stay here damn it!” Yasuhiro screamed at the baseball player.

“What do you mean?” Makoto asked, his hands gripping the podium. 

“Allow me to explain.” Monokuma interrupted, holding up an envelope with Yasuhiro’s name on it, identical to the one that they had been given as a motive. Monokuma cleared his throat and began reading. “Yasuhiro Hagakure, gee whizz do you have a lot of debt, and a whole lotta people lookin’ to off you because of that debt. Tell ya what, if you graduate, instead of letting you leave, I’ll let you stay here. Not only are you safe from the mobsters, you’re safe from your classmates who could be lurking around every corner, ready to kill you!” 

“He didn’t even want to leave?” Hifumi yelled in amazement. 

“You don’t what it’s like to be hunted…I just wanted to live! It was either I die in here or die out there, and suddenly there was an option that let me live.” Yasuhiro explained, exchanging a desperate glance with anyone who would look at him. “Everyone here is so damn bloodthirsty, someone would've killed me or I would've died in a trial. If I didn't at least try to live then what's the point!” 

“Congratulations, another correct verdict. You know what that means!” Monokuma said in a happy tone.

“W-Wait, don’t kill me! Just let me live here and I’ll do whatever you want!” Yasuhiro plead.

“It’s punishment time!” Monokuma hit the comically large red button in front of him with his gavel.

“Don’t! Please! Pleaaaaaase!” Yasuhiro was on his knees, pleading to Monokuma, a desperate hand reaching out to the black and white headmaster. But no amount of pleading could have stopped what was planned. A chain, the same kind that had wrapped itself around Chihiro’s neck, sprung forth and grabbed Yasuhiro's left ankle before dragging him down a long, dark corridor.


	14. Execution: Dealer, Hit Me!

Yasuhiro found himself in an empty casino. He was sitting at one of the blackjack tables, the only other entity in the entire room was the Monokuma on the other side of the table, wearing a pin that said “Dealer”. He glanced around the room, and his eyes went wide when he saw a large door labeled “Exit”, he began to stand up, but then noticed two cards lying in front of him, and upon looking at them closer, he realized that they were a 6 and a 5, he could definitely win with a hand like that! He sat back down with a wary smile and tapped the table, indicating to the dealer that he wanted another card. The Monokuma chuckled as it flicked one card at Yasuhiro, but to Yasuhiro’s surprise, it went right towards his face, cutting his cheek and causing a stream of pink to trickle down his face. He jumped up from his stool and began running towards the exit as more and more cards were thrown at him like ninja stars, one cutting deep in the back of his leg causing him to stumble, another landing square in his back, and yet another embedding itself in his right arm. He was now limping terribly as he tried his best to make his way to the exit, when out of nowhere another Monokuma stepped out in front of it with another deck of cards. He threw his arms in front of his face in preparation, but it did him no good. Now stuck between two streams of razor-sharp cards, he was helpless. Starting at his feet, cards were embedded all the way to the bottom of his neck. He fell to the floor out of the pain of having so many projectiles buried in his body, only causing some of them to go even deeper in. 

The onslaught of cards stopped, and Yasuhiro opened his eyes. He watched as one of the Monokumas walked up to him, pulling a slot machine behind it in a red wagon and wielding a 6-shot revolver in its other paw. Yasuhiro watched as the Monokuma walked right next to him and pulled the lever attached to the slot machine. The first column landed, to Yasuhiro’s amazement, on “Exit”. The second column did so as well. And as the third one began to slowly stop, Yasuhiro smiled as he realized it would also land on “Exit”. But before it came to a stop, the Monokuma hit the top of it with the gun in its paw, causing all the columns to move to a cartoon picture of a gun. The Monokuma began laughing as Yasuhiro’s eyes went wide in horror as it pointed the gun towards itself. 

“Click”

The barrel was empty. It turned the gun towards Yasuhiro.

“Click”. He began to shake his head as tears welled up in his eyes. Once again, the gun was turned towards the Monkuma.

“Click.” Yasuhiro was shaking horribly as the gun was turned back onto him. 

“Click”. Yasuhiro began mumbling under his breath. A prayer to some higher power, perhaps.

“Click.” The Monokumas chuckle was deafening at this point. Yasuhiro was helpless on the ground, body to damaged to move at all. The gun was pressed against his head for one final time.

‘Boom.’ The loud gunshot echoed throughout the room. The students only looked on in horror as Yasuhiro’s head was flung backward, pink dripping from the hole in his head.


	15. Makoto's Free Time

Just as before, another floor opened up for the students to explore. Instead of spreading out into teams like they had done last time, each student looked around on their own accord. Celestia, climbing the staircase, went to the first room she saw. There was a large pool table and some game machines. One game machine, bright pink with a cartoon cat on it, had Makoto staring at it intently, fidgeting with the controls. He glanced back as Celestia entered but then quickly turned his attention back to the game.

“Oh, hi Celestia.” 

“Hmm, you’re quite enamored aren’t you.” Celestia said while approaching the boy in sweatpants, her boots clicking on the floor. A game over screen flashed and Makoto turned to face her.

He sighed deeply. “I was just playing one of those games over there, it’s actually really fun.”

“I could tell by your intense concentration.” Celestia laughed. 

“Hey Celestia, do you…Wanna try it?” Makoto asked hesitantly as he motioned towards the machine.

“Hmm, why not? I’ve played some driving games before, how hard could it be?”

Makoto Naegi would live to regret that offer. 

“THIS GAME IS UTTER BULLSHIT.” Celestia screamed at the top of her lungs while a flashing ‘Game Over’ appeared on the screen. 

“C-Celestia!” Makoto said as he watched the otherwise calm girl freak out. 

Celestia cleared her throat and composed herself, not acknowledging what Makoto undoubtedly thought was a shocking outburst.

“Well, perhaps gaming isn’t for me. I assume that, as a fanfiction author, you must consume all type of mediums of the fiction you write about?” Celestia asked.

“U-Um, well I…” Makoto hesitated, still reeling from Celestia absurd reaction to the simple albeit rage-inducing game. “Yeah, that’s kinda right I guess. But I don’t play video games or read manga or watch anime to fuel my fan fiction, I write fanfiction because I love all that stuff. When my favorite character dies or a game has some unsatisfactory ending, I could easily just huff and puff and never touch it again, but instead, I write what I would think would be a better ending, or I guess a more satisfying ending to me.” Makoto explained, becoming more impassioned as he spoke.

“You must be quite popular online, with that passion.” Celestia said, causing Makoto’s face to turn pink.

“I guess you could say I’m popular. But that’s not really what I care about. It’s the comments that I care about. The comments of people telling me that I did their favorite character justice, or that they came to my work when they weren’t happy with the canon ending of something, that’s all I need.” Makoto smiled. “My talent isn’t as flashy as 'baseball star', or as practical as 'Heir', but I wouldn’t change for anything!”

Celestia smiled. Imagine, she thought, being content with a talent of posting stories online. Her ambitions were far greater, but it was a comforting thought that some people are happy with simple living. 

 

After parting ways with Makoto, Celestia investigated the rest of the new floor. There was a lovely art room with an attached storage room, as well as a physics lab and a storage room attached to that as well, along with the classrooms that had been on every floor. 

Celestia, now satisfied with her search, made her way to the first floor, intent on getting some of her afternoon tea. But in front of the cafeteria was a clump of students.

“It’s simple, answer why you were so invested in Mondo when he died. We’ve been here mere days and you wept over his corpse. Why?” Byakuya was probing a disinterested Mukuro.

“Will you leave her alone? What’s it to you anyway?” Aoi, who had stepped in front of Mukuro and face to face with Byakuya, said. 

“I want to know how at risk Mukuro is for snapping.” Byakuya responded coldly.

“Mondo was my twin brother.” Mukuro said from behind Aoi, causing Aoi to turn around with a look of shock.

“Woah, what? Neither of you said you were related?!” She said in surprise.

“Hmph, no wonder she refused to admit it at first. I’d say the death of a sibling is enough to push someone into insanity. But at least we now know to watch her intently.” Byakuya said, walking past the girls. He shoulder checked Mukuro, but in response, she grabbed his wrist. 

“You control the people that you write in your stories, but fucking with actual people have actual consequences. Watch your back.” Mukuro spoke with palpable anger as she gripped the author’s wrist tightly. Byakuya jerked his arm away and scoffed as he walked back to the dormitory, seeing Celestia spectating.

“What?” He asked angrily as she watched him walk away from the argument.

“It’s nothing, dear literary boy.” She said, walking past him and then past Mukuro and Aoi and into the cafeteria where she prepared herself some lovely royal milk tea.


	16. Pairing up! + Kiyotaka's Free Time

It was three days after Mondo’s Murder and Yasuhiro’s execution. Each day she woke up, Celestia dreaded hearing the voice of the headmaster each morning. She couldn’t help but set her sleep schedule to it, and it almost made it normal to her. This morning was no different. The bear announced that it was 7 AM and, like clockwork, Celestia got up and got dressed, then headed for breakfast. She felt a sense of relief when, upon entering the cafeteria for breakfast, she saw each and every one of her surviving classmates alive and together. She took a seat between Sayaka and Byakuya. It was Aoi’s turn to cook breakfast, and she put a place of delicious looking French Toast in front of Celestia.

“Dear Aoi, how on Earth did you know that this was my favorite breakfast item?” Celestia asked.

“It just fit your aesthetic, don't forget it's your turn tomorrow Makoto, even if you did help me today.” Aoi responded, laughing while sitting across from her with a plate of donuts while Makoto chuckled as well.

“Looks like, as Chairwoman, I can call this meeting of the Hope’s Peak Academy Student Body to order!” Junko said while swallowing the last bite of her waffles.

“And who appointed you Chair?” Byakuya asked, legs and arms both crossed.

“Well, as the moral compass of the group, I take the role on because I’m the only one who can. Honestly, having so much responsibility makes me feel all kinds of despair.” Junko said as she slumped down in her chair, twirling her hair as mushrooms suddenly sprouted from her head, which suddenly popped off as she continued to speak. “I have some exciting news! From here on out, there is a mandatory buddy system.”

There were a few confused faces before another spoke up.

“Umm, you mean like we did in preschool?” Sayaka asked.

“You got it girl!” Junko said excitedly. “Just think, Kyoko was killed because she was alone with a killer and Monod because he was alone in general.”

“Don’t you imply that it was his fault that that gambling buffoon killed him.” Mukuro said.

“Course not.” Junko said with a wave of her hands. “But you can’t tell me that if you had someone that couldn’t leave your side that you wouldn’t be like, a million times safer.”

“That’s stupid!” Leon yelled. “If you’re always alone with someone, that person could just off you.”

Junko, pink cheeks and a cute voice, responded. “Don’t be mean, my pwan is better than that! If person A and person B are partners, person A dies, it’ll be obvious that person B is respwonsible.”

“Such an annoying, cartoonish voice spoke words that made sense. The contrast between her overwhelming idiocy and the underlying logic behind every word is stunning.” Byakuya analyzed as he wrote in his journal. 

“I'm all for a buddy system!” Aoi cheered. 

“And do we get to choose our partners?” Hifumi asked, looking longingly as Sayaka while drool poured from his mouth. 

“Don’t even think about it!” Leon yelled at the fat luckster.

“I’ve already got a plan!” Junko pulled a piece of paper out of nowhere and laid it on the table. 

The students passed the list around to see who Junko paired with who. Celestia looked, hoping she wasn’t paired with anyone too atrocious. She saw the list:  
Tokou and Mukuro  
Leon and Sayaka  
Kiyotaka and Celestia  
Aoi and Byakuya  
Hifumi and Makoto.

Not bad, Celestia thought. But then she noticed.

“Junko, I see that you don’t have a partner. Does that mean you won’t be abiding by your own rules?” Celestia asked.

“That is true! I have created this system as to ensure your safety, but also to ensure you don’t off someone. As the moral compass, I’m no threat.” Junko proclaimed.

“I have no objections! This seems like a lovely idea, Junko.” Kiyotaka said with a smile.

“Yeah, this gives people a better way of getting to know each other too.” Sayaka said as she smiled at Leon, who blushed in return.

“Makoto, I have an excuse to ask you for your opinions on some more obscure anime that I am a fan of.” Hifumi said.

“Sounds fun.” Makoto responded, slightly less enthusiastic than Hifumi. 

“If we’re done here, I’m going to read.” Byakuya said, standing up and walking out of the cafeteria.

“Byakuya, hold on!” Aoi said while following him.

As Aoi ran after him, the others broke off with the person who they were selected to partner with. Kiyotaka walked to Celestia with a smile.

“Celestia! I won’t lie, I’m happy with Junko’s choice!” Kiyotaka said.

“Yes, there are certainly worse people here than you.” Celestia said as she glanced at Hifumi, seemingly talking Makoto’s ears off.

“Well, how about we pass the time! To the third floor!” Kiyotaka suggested. Celestia shrugged and nodded her head and the pair made their way to the third floor. Kiyotaka eventually turned into the art room.

“Here we are!” He said proudly.

“The art room, whatever for?” Celestia asked as Kiyotaka as he picked out a canvas and easel. 

“We are going to paint!” Proclaimed the detective. He then found dug through a box and pulled out several paints of different colors and a brush. “My grandfather and I used to paint together all the time when he was having a hard time on a case, it’s very relaxing!”

“Oh? I would never have guessed you were an artisan Kiyotaka. But while I enjoy fine art, I don’t paint.” Celestia explained as she sat in a wooden chair. “I am not opposed to watching.”

“I have no problem with that!” Kiyotaka finished setting all of what he needed up. As he dipped his brush into sky blue paint, Celestia continued talking.  
.  
“You mentioned your grandfather, Kiyotaka-“ Before she was able to finish her question, Kiyotaka chimed in.

“Yes, I did! I owe a lot of my character to him. His name was Toranosuke Ishimaru. He was a Police Chief.” Kiyotaka explained.

“Ah, that does explain some things. I assume he was rather diligent in ensuring that you took on the same profession?” Celestia asked.

Kiyotaka was still painting. He was good, Celestia noted. The shapes he painted began forming into a wonderful scene of trees and grasses with a figure standing near the center. “Not exactly. You see, Chief Toranosuke was an amazing officer through and through. The crime rate in the city dropped to an unprecedented low number. However, certain unfortunate truths came out about him. He had been ‘in bed’, as they say, with certain crime families. He resigned in disgrace, and caused the Ishimaru name that same dishonor.” He stopped for a moment, holding his paintbrush against the canvass, causing the paint to stream down the painting, a black streak now running through the otherwise beautiful picture. “I made it my life’s mission to put as many people like him in prison.”

“My, that is quite the motivation behind your talent.” Celestia commented. 

“Don’t call it that.” Kiyotaka placed the brush down and turned to Celestia. “My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and I am the Super High School Level Detective because I spent countless hours reading about both fictional and nonfictional crimes, studying all that I could. I am not a talented person like you, I am a dedicated person!” Kiyotaka clenched his fists as he spoke. Celestia couldn’t help but see the irony in his words. A person that dedicated does, in fact, have talents. The talent of being born with an iron will and a backstory to boot. 

The two walked around the school, passing by some of the other pairs of students. Celestia enjoyed Kiyotaka’s company, at least more than some others. By the time nighttime came around, Kiyotaka decided that it wasn’t proper for a detective to sleep in the same room as someone of the opposite sex, and thus slept in his own room. Celestia was left alone in her room to think of the situation she was in. Can she trust Kiyotaka? Or anyone for that matter. She didn’t know, and she knew that no matter how close she became to anyone within the school of death, that question would be on her mind.


	17. A Despair Filled Dreamscape!

Celestia was running. Fast. The narrow hall seemed to be getting more narrow and the footsteps behind her getting faster. She ran past a wooden door with a pixelated avatar of Kyoko Kirigiri, but the footsteps were too near for her to try to open it. To her right, a similar door that she recognized as Chihiro Fujisakis. Another door to the left, Mondo Oowada’s. To the right, Yasuhiro Hagakure’s. The hall was so narrow that her shoulders were nearly touching the sides as she ran. Then, at the end of the hall, one last door. The picture on the door was her. Her hand went to her pocket, but her key wasn’t there. She prayed the door was unlocked as she twisted the knob, but it wasn’t meant to be. She resorted to banging on the door.

 

Bang. Bang. Bang.

 

The footsteps were getting closer, faster. But she didn’t give up.

 

Bang. Bang. Bang.

 

It wouldn’t budge, but she couldn’t give up. She had to survive this time.

 

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

 

“Celestia! We’ve overslept!”

 

Celestia shot up in her bed, whatever dream she was having instantly gone from her mind. With the door still being beat by whoever was on the other side, she threw on a black bathrobe that came with her clothes and opened the door. Her face must’ve shown her anger because Kiyotaka took a step back the moment he saw her when she threw the door open.

“What.” Celestia said.

“G-Good morning Celestia!” Kiyotaka said, in a shakier voice than usual. “It seems that we have overslept, it’s 10 !”

Celestia glanced at the clock on her wall, and the Detective was spot on. It was 10:00 exactly. 

“Strange. I assume that this means Monokuma’s announcement didn’t ring to wake us.” Celestia reasoned.

“My deduction exactly!” Kiyotaka affirmed, beaming with pride. “And judging from that smell, we aren’t the first to rise.” 

Kiyotaka was right, the smell of breakfast was wafting through the air. Kiyotaka waited patiently outside of the dorm while Celestia went through the process of getting ready, process that she managed to shorten to five minutes, she could always come back to fix her makeup, right now she just wanted breakfast. After exiting, they walked together.

Upon entering the cafeteria, Celestia saw Hifumi with a large number of plates placing them for the breakfast to come. 

“Celestia! Makoto and I are terribly for the late breakfast! My luck has turned sour, Makoto and I both overslept. He’s still making the food, and I’m helping as his buddy. We’re sorry.” Hifumi said, with a sad face that showed he was disappointed, whether in his luck or his failure to wake his buddy, Celestia wasn’t sure. Before she could respond, a voice came from behind her. 

“The man setting the table was lucky, and he should be grateful for that every day of his life. If he hadn’t been gifted with luck, he would merely be born to die an unknown waste.” 

Looking back, it was Byakuya Togami, closing the journal he carries with him, followed by Aoi, still yawning.

“Please give it some thought. If you two were the only ones that weren’t awake, we would’ve awoke you lest we be unsure of your living status.” Byakuya continued.

“S-So it wasn’t my luck that faltered!” Hifumi’s eyes lit up. “LADY LUCK STILL LOVES ME SO!” 

“If that’s what you have to tell yourself bud.” Aoi said while yawning and taking a seat.

Makoto came out of the kitchen, balancing two different trays with a variety of different breakfast foods and the eleven tea cups to go with. It seems that the Fanfiction Author went all out on breakfast. 

“Celestia, Kiyotaka! Oh, and Byakuya and Aoi. I’m sure Hifumi explained what happened.” 

Hifumi explained rather quickly that it turns out everyone overslept while Makoto fixed the plates and put a steaming cup next to them each, Celestia sat as soon as he put the French toast on a plate. Celestia was one of the few who ate a special breakfast. While everyone else ate the eggs or the pancakes that whoever made breakfast made that day, Celestia needed French toast, Kiyotaka took wheat bread toast and egg whites, Makoto ate a PB&J, and Aoi enjoyed donuts. For the sake of simplicity, Celestia assumed at least, he put all of the special breakfasts next to each other, forcing Celestia to sit to the left of Kiyotaka, who was to the left of Makoto, who would be next Aoi.

Soon enough, people began to trickle into the cafeteria and take their seat. Despite Celestia’s inkling of fear that the buddy system would be abandoned after the first day, everyone arrived with their assigned buddy. They either woke up near the same time and met in the hall as they were exiting their room or, like Leon and Sayaka, Byakuya and Aoi, and Celestia and Kiyotaka, were woken by their buddy who woke up before them. Eventually, everyone was sat down and eating. Almost everyone. Junko Enoshima was nowhere to be seen.

As Celestia noted that, she heard footsteps coming down the hall, quickly but not what she would describe as running. In walked Junko, hair disheveled and shoes on the wrong feet.

“Mornin’ mornin’ my classmates! I can’t describe how shitty it feels to oversleep, after all, I’m supposed to be a perfect moral compass for all of you! But internal clocks don’t care about morals!” She walked to the end of the table, hopping while she pulled off one shoe, then another, and put them on properly and eventually falling into her chair. 

“I bet Monokuma is trying to get into our heads by that stunt it pulled today.” Leon said, sitting next to Sayaka despite not being restricted to sitting next to a buddy during breakfast.

“P-Psychological warfare?” said Tokou “W-Why on E-Earth would you s-say that?”

“He means,” Started Byakuya “That the bear wanted to get us into a pattern, then break it. A small ruse, but annoying nonetheless.”

“Well yeah, but I wasn’t gonna be condescending about it.” Leon scoffed, to Sayaka’s laughter.

“So, that damn bear is to blame for my perfect attendance being tarnished!” Junko said as she stabbed her fork into the eggs in front of her. She hadn’t even touched her tea before the announcement rang through the building.

“My lovely students, please assemble in the gymnasium at once. It’s time for some rule clarifications.”

The voice was unmistakably Monokuma. She didn’t know what clarification the bear was talking about, but she had learned it wasn’t wise to disobey that thing.


	18. Changin' the Game and Raisin' the Stakes

The group of students all walked towards to gymnasium once again. This time, there was a sense of security. Everyone had a buddy, someone wholly dedicated to keeping an eye on them, and vice versa. Celestia glanced at Kiytotaka next to her, the noble investigator who has dedicated his life to justice and law was now her ‘buddy’. A few months ago, if an apprentice police officer was following her anywhere, that person might’ve had more broken bones then they’d prefer. But circumstances have changed, and now his sense of duty brings her a sense of safety. Looking at the others, Celestia could tell there were friendships becoming apparent, Sayaka and Leon giggling together, Hifumi and Makoto speaking about something surely very nerdy, and Aoi biting into a donut, talking to Byakuya with her mouthful, to Byakuya's obvious annoyance, be him tolerating her was a step. But there was still tension. Tokou and Mukuro, while they did walk together, were silent, Mukuro especially since Mondo died. And Junko, who had been struggling with keeping order, as two murders happened despite her best efforts, was obviously exhausted despite her grin. She was excellent at keeping up a facade of confidence, but Celestia was better at seeing past them.

Monokuma said that it wanted to clarify some rules, so Celestia looked at her E-Handbook to look over the current rules.  
Rule #1: Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.  
Rule #2: "Nighttime" is from 10 pm to 7 am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution. These areas include the cafeteria, the pool area, the sauna, the recreation room, and the Trash Incinerator.  
Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.  
Rule #4: With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.  
Rule #5: Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.  
Rule #6: Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.  
Rule #7: Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.  
Rule #8: If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.  
Rule #9: If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all remaining students will be executed.  
Rule #10: Additional school regulations may be added if necessary.

Nothing changed yet, Celestia noted. And then, the students were all in the gym. Looking at the black and white headmaster at it’s podium was a scene all too familiar for the students.

“Well well well, there are the students that I go on everyday aiming to please. The students who I put so much processing power towards pleasing by creating a welcoming school environment that encourages you to be yourself, try new things, and murder each other.” The bear said as soon as the last student walked in. Suddenly, the bear’s claws were unsheathed, threateningly glaring at the students it was expressing its devotion towards. “Which is why I don’t understand why some of you are trying to be such a pain in my ass.”

“W-What are you on a-about you stupid bear?!” Tokou shouted.

“How about you ask your stupid crystal ball!” Monokuma shouted in response before seemingly calming down. “What I mean is, one of you obviously don’t appreciate all that I do for you.”

“Hey, bogus headmaster. You referring to some kinda rule violation I guess?” Junko asked in her valley girl voice. 

“Why Yes. I. Am.” Monokuma emphasized each word.

Interesting, thought Celestia. Someone, one of her fellow students, had broken one of the rules Monokuma had set in place. But which rule? And more importantly, why the assembly? Why not just execute justice, as it had done with Sakura the first day here? Before she could follow that line of reasoning, Monokuma continued.

“New regulation time. I bring to you Update 1.1!” The bear said. 

Suddenly, there was a buzz in all of the students pockets. Pulling out her E-Handbook, there was a new rule added. 

Rule #11: “Rule 2 supersedes any other rule in the student handbook. Violating the nighttime rule and entering an off-limits area with be punishable by execution!”

“So what you’re telling us, inadvertently or not,” Baykuya began “Is that someone found a loophole, and this is your way of correcting that?”

“I ain’t saying crap! I admit that the rules may have been only a tad bit vague in regards to a few rules, and I won’t have any of you exploiting that.” Slowly, the mechanical grin of the bear widened. “But since I already have all of my students here, I might as well award you for all showing up.”

“You don’t mean-” Before Makoto could finish, his fears were confirmed.

“A new motive! And to think, I had planned on not bringing out this bad boy for a while, but you only have yourselves to balme!” Monokuma boasted, and as it did, there was a mechanical noise as the lights switched off. Descending from the ceiling was a large screen, and suddenly a projector flicked on from somewhere in the back of the gymnasium, filling the screen with images as well as illuminating the dark room, which the sound of a cinema from decades past. Eleven squares filled the screen, each one containing a person. 

Celestia’s eyes dart around the screen. There’s a gentleman in an expensive looking suit with greased back hair, a rather cute teenage girl, a square that was nothing but static, a man in an orange jumpsuit and then, near the center...A man wearing a leather vest and a white t-shirt holding a black cat with a frilled collar. The screen went to black, and all that was heard was the sound of a gun cocking. Celestia's eyes went from darting to wide in shock, and she couldn’t help but mutter under her breath. 

“Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg…” It was her beloved pet. The fat beast could eat as much food as you put in front of him, and for good reason. Celestia found him when she was still riding a bike with training wheels, near a dumpster on one of the backstreets of Tokyo. Celeste felt such pity for the malnourished cat that she took him in despite how she sometimes found it hard to feed even herself. When things turned around for Celeste, she spoiled the cat, giving it it’s current rotund shape. She loves that cat, it’s seen the rise of both her and the Red Aces as an organization. He is the only real family Celeste has, the only person in her life who has known both Taeko and Celestia. 

“Celestia, snap out of it!” 

Mokoto stood in front of her, a concerned look on his face. 

“Please tell me you’re okay!” He was now shaking Celestia by her shoulders.

Celestia instinctively knocked his hands away and stepped back. “I’m fine.” She said, her words staccato as the image of the most important person in her life on that screen lingered in her mind. As she glanced around and saw most others in a look of shock, a few in tears. Even the ones who boast a strong character looked taken aback, Byakuya had a sweat beading down his forehead and Junko had a silent rage burning in her as she glared at the bear on stage, visible now that the lights have turned back on and the screen ascended, even Kiyotaka's face looked as if he has seen a ghost. The other students have more visible despair on their faces. Hifumi was a blubbering mess, Tokou seemed to have fainted because of the stress, and Sayaka was visibly shaking, but was being embraced by Leon, himself fighting tears. All but Makoto.

“Everyone, listen! It’s going to be okay, we can’t let Monokuma win again. He thinks he can keep using these motives to sew chaos and turn us against each other, but we can prove him wrong!” 

He stood there defiantly among the chaos, obviously shaken, his voice was unsteady, but there was a strange aura about him. Only a few students here could be described as strong. Junko has her strength in her morals, Kiyotaka in his rules, Byakuya in his mind, and Celestia in her sheer personality. But Makoto, a simple guy by definition, was the only one strong enough to show resilience in this situation. His strength was in his illogical and unyielding optimism. Celestia found his words comforting, despite their nonsensical nature.

Usually, this is where someone would say something awful. Byakuya would have some pessimistic rant or Tokou would stutter through some apocalyptic prophecy, instigating Aoi or Junko to offer some valiant attempt to rebuff such negativity. But not this time. Such a personal attack has shaken the students to their core, they want to believe Makoto this time. They seem to trust him simply trust his optimism because to distrust it would mean to distrust the certainty of whoever they saw on that screen being safe.

“Hey hey Makoto, I like your attitude!” The silence was broken by Aoi’s ever cheerful voice. “We’re all still pretty shaken. Girls, how about we hit the bathhouse? Boys, you guys can, uh, get our towels ready!” 

No one put any resistance to her plan. Monokuma, as opposed to disappearing like usual, simply sat on its podium and watched the students leave, at least Celestia hoped it was only watching.


	19. Artificial Intelligence Breeds Organic Fighting!

The students, in the same groups of two that they had been in, moved to the bathhouse. Most still in a stunned state of seeing what they had in the gym. Celestia reasoned that, given that the motives have been consistent for every student, the other people she had seen were most certainly important to her classmates. The fact that everyone was experiencing the same heart wrench that she was weighed on her mind. Desperate people act without rhyme or reason, she knew this, and with that thought the trust just cultivated by Makoto was decaying by the minute. 

“Hey, so, you didn’t actually want us guys here just to get the girls towels, right?” Leon asked, a hint of hopefulness in what her true intentions might be. 

“Right you are, Leon!” Aoi said, trying to be cheerful but the sadness still palpable in her voice.

“You better be telling us why we are here then.” Byakuya snapped.

“No need to be so pushy, mister. I’m sure you can tell why this room is special.” Aoi said, smiling. 

“Of course, I noticed the moment we entered.” Byakuya looked around the room while talking. “This room, unlike all of the others, have no cameras. My guess is that the steam from the bath makes them pointless.”

“So, I guess you’ve got something to tell us that you don’t wanna Monokuma to hear?” Sayaka mused.

“Yep! Spot on Sayaka!” Aoi beamed, her positivity was infectious as Sayaka smiled in return.

“Care to enlighten us?” Celestia asked, she could frankly do without the anticipation.

“Part ways!” Aoi said to the crowd as she moved towards the lockers through the huddled mass of her classmates. She pulled a key from her back pocket and unlocked a locker near the middle and pulled a laptop out.

“A l-l-laptop?” Asked Tokou

“Yep! I found it in the library, but it was all busted. That’s actually why I borrowed your toolset Makoto.” Aoi explained.

“Ha, I figured it was for a good enough reason.” Makoto responded.

“And over the the past few days, I’ve managed to get it up and running! Not only that, but I installed this program I’ve been working on for a long time.”

“Aoi, that’s astounding!” Hifumi said, a little too loud as usual.

“It sure is, especially because I’m sure our super duper Programmer has a super duper program to boot! What does it do?” Junko asked expectantly. 

“Well maybe not super duper, but I’m pretty proud of it! It’s an AI that I’ve had rattling around in the old brain of mine for a while. Lucky for me, and all of us I guess, I had a copy of it on me that wasn’t confiscated like our cell phones.” Aoi explained all the while typing excitedly on the keyboard. “This AI was made for mimicking the personalities of others. But because that didn’t seem super helpful at the moment, I’ve set it to set more of its processing power towards connecting to the wifi and downloading the contents it can find that are saved in the cloud. But that doesn't mean that I deleted the fun part!” Aoi punctuated her sentence by dramatically hitting the enter button and taking a couple steps back. As the students watched with bated breath, an avatar popped onto the screen. A small digital version of Makoto.

“W-Why is it me?!” Makoto asked, rather disconcerted.

“Oh, well you’re always smiling about this or that, and you let me borrow your tools, so I thought I’d have your personality tell us what it finds. That way, even if it’s nothing, at least we’re told cherrily!” Aoi elebarated to the pink faced fanfiction author.

Celestia was amused by such a creation. It wouldn't hurt to have a miniature version of herself as a digital second in command. After all, there's only so much help a cat can do as lieutenant. 

“So that’s what I look like! You were right, I am cute!” Said the digital Makoto happily.

“Quiet! I never said that!” Aoi said panicked before putting her hands in front of her face to hide her embarrassment while Makoto’s face became even more red. After a moment, she continued speaking with a resigned tone. “Just update us on the cloud search.” 

“Can do! I’ve scanned the files I’ve found, and luckily they weren’t too heavily protected. Your theory was right, master, there is certainly wireless internet here. But I was able to find that two devices were connected, not just one like you had thought.” The electronic Makoto said.

Hearing this, Aoi moved her hands away from her face. “What? I wonder what that could mean…” 

“Could you perhaps translate what that means to us with less tech savvy?” Asked Kiyotaka.

“Well, it means that Monokuma isn’t the only robot in the school.” Aoi explained.

“What about our E-Handbooks? Would they not count? Or some other device, why jump to the conclusion it's another robot?” Byakuya inquired.

“Well the E-Handbooks would be a no go, at least at any given time. From what I’ve seen, they come pre-programmed with the rules and the map of the school, and can be remotely updated. So the only time they are needed on the Wifi is during those updates.” Aoi elaborated. “And nothing else I've oberseved here would require a wireless connection other than Monokuma, who would have to have some remote connection to the schools cameras and those scary looking guns. The second device is strange, but it could be a backup Monokuma. Anything else Mini-Makoto?”

“W-Why did you name it that!” Makoto was now a deep crimson.

“Other than the connected devices, I found a text file. It’s been corrupted, but I managed to salvage some. It seems to be a roster of some sort.” Mini-Makoto’s avatar fades into the background and was replaced by a list of names with text next to them.

Chihiro Fujisaki- Easily manipulated by using his fans expectations against him. He has an image to uphold. First or second murderer likely.  
Yasuhiro Hagakure- His personality is an addictive one. He likely has massive debts, obvious motives. One presented with a monetary motive, it’s highly likely he will kill.

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The rest of the text was a jumbled mess.

“What on Earth is this?” Kiyotaka, expression freshly shocked, asked.

“It sounds like something from a detective TV show.” Hifumi observed.

“Ha, well at least we know he’s not completely brain dead.” All Hifumi could do was snare at him as he continued. “They seem to be a physiological profile. This was to be expected. The motives the bear has presented thus far were successful, and you can’t manipulate people into murdering each other without a little bit of research.”

“I don’t know,” Sayaka started. “They seem really accurate. Something's off putting about it.”

“Well, analysis like this is most certainly done by a professional, if not several.” Junko, who was now dawning glasses for some reason accompanied by a clipboard in her hands began. “My calculations show that there is a high likelihood that whoever is behind this, the mastermind if you will, is backed by a large company of individuals with enough funds to hire a professional psychologist.”

“You mean...The resources an heir would have?” Leon threw an accusatory glance at Mukuro, who was in the corner of the bathhouse, silent as she had been since Mondo’s death.

“Hey, Leon, that doesn’t mean anything.” Makoto jumped to the heirs defense. “Don’t blindly accuse people of things, not even if it's just insinuating.” 

“I’m not insinuating nothin’, but I’m just saying that it’d make sense for the mastermind, as Junko said, would be here watching us. And Mukuro has all of those resources as heir. And think about it, her and Mondo were watching each others back from day one, what if that wasn’t a coincidence?” 

Before Makoto could counter his argument, Mukuro had moved faster than anyone had expected, and was now face to face with Leon. That movement was certainly practiced, thought Celestia. Perhaps her and her brother trained together at times.

“Slander me all you want. I don’t care anymore. But leave my brothers name out of your mouth.” Mukuro’s words were threatening. Those kind of words weren’t out of place in the underbelly of Japan, Celestia noted. That setting and the business world must have more in common than she thought.

“Get out of his face!” Sayaka ordered as she grabbed Mukuro’s wrist. 

In one fluid motion, Mukuro turned all of her attention to Sayaka and backhanded her with a resounding sound.

Sayaka fell backwards as the room went quiet. Mukuro didn’t say another word as she strode out of the bathhouse. 

“Well, buddy system is still a go! Get after her Tokou!” Snapped Junko.

Tokou groaned as she ran out of the room after Tokou. 

The students were quick to disperse after a physical altercation like that. They had a bit of freetime, free now meaning attached to their buddy. Kiyotaka was kind enough to let Celestia choose where they could go, and she had an idea where.


	20. Hifumi's Free Time

“There’s a game in the recreation room I wish to try.” Celestia said, Kiyotaka nodding his head.

“A racing game, I would assume.” Kiyotaka responded.

The pair was walking up to the third floor. While there was certainly tension in the bathhouse after Mukuro struck Sayaka, there wasn’t chaos. People had funneled out, but it was in pairs. There was still some order, but perhaps it was only because of the watchful eyes of Junko.

As the two entered the gaming room, Celestia noticed it was already occupied. At the same rage-inducing game Makoto had shown her earlier, the one she was planning on playing, was Makoto and Hifumi, this time Hifumi at the controls utterly enraptured in the small digital car.

“Well Makoto, I didn’t know you were so cruel.” Celestia said, more to announce her entrance than anything. “That game brings nothing but true despair. I would rather see it dismantled and ground into dust than played by my associates.” 

Makoto turned to look at the two and let out a laugh. “Well Hifumi is actually pretty good, he’s beaten my high score.”

At that moment, Hifumi let out a deep sigh as a game over screen flashes. “Not by much…”

“Hey Kiyotaka, do you like video games?” Makoto asked as he gestured towards the machine as Hifumi stepped aside.

“I-Well I’m sure I would hypothetically, but my duties as an apprentice detective keep me very busy!” Kiyotaka explained.

“Well...Do you want to try?” Makoto asked.

“I don’t see why not! I haven’t driven before, obviously that’s illegal, but how hard can it be!”

Makoto stepped up to show him the controls, and Celestia watched as Kiyotaka drove the car within the lines and slowly, to Makoto’s frustration. This left Hifumi and Celestia to mill about, with only each other to speak to. Celestia had always found comfort in Hifumi’s fat figure, the absolute sphere of a man brought the sweet memories of her beloved cat back to the forefront of her mind. That didn’t mean she wished to speak to him, but he started a conversation anyway.

“My lady Ludenberg, how are you doing?” Hifumi asked.

“You mean how am I doing in this rotten school we have been trapped in? The same school that several of our classmates have died in? I’ll be truthful to you, luckster, I have been better.” Celestia said.

“I...Well I guess I should alter my small talk a tad for the situation we’re in…” Hifumi said, embarrassed.

Celestia sighed in response. “Pay it no mind. Today has been exhausting for the lot of us. Instead of talking about our current situation, let’s discuss our pasts. What’s better than memories for people like us in horrible situations?” Celestia explained.

“Very well!” Hifumi said excitedly. “Ask me anything and I’ll respond!” 

“You are the Super High School Level Luckseter, yes? What was your realization? Or was the lottery that they held for the position the first instance of this luck?” Celestia inquired.

“Good question! Actually, winning the lottery to come to Hope’s Peak was the most recent event in my lifelong lucky streak. After I was born, the doctors accidently sent me home with the wrong family!” Hifumi bragged.

“That seems quite unlucky to me.” Celestia stated, puzzled.

“One would think! But the family that brought me home was extremely affluent, and grew to love me as their own son! Once it was discovered that there had been a mix up, I was of course sent back. However, the family ensure my true family’s debts had been entirely paid as a way to ensure their son-for-a-month had a good life! And that was only the beginning. I learned that whenever I earned those random giveaways online, even if my odds were one-in-a-hundred-thousand, my true odds were near 50-50. Yes, vacations to resorts, movies,  
books, and I even got to swim with the dolphins, all won through chance.” Hifumi boasted.

“That is an absurd level of luck indeed.” Celestia said. “Being the Super High School Level Biker Gang leader certainly has its positives, but many downsides as well. A talent like luck, well those positives are endless and the negatives nonexistent.”

“One would think…” Hifumi said, lowering his head a bit. “But when you are a magnet for prosperity, others can sometimes...Try and move in and hope for some of it to rub off.” 

“I think I’m starting to see the picture. People clung to you not for friendship, but for their on prosperity.” Celestia said while twirling her hair in between her fingers, thinking back to several who had tried a similar thing on her.

“Very much so. Although I usually was able to figure out who wasn’t a real friend, a couple ended up falling down open manhole covers.” Hifumi perked back up as he muffled a chuckle. 

"A word of advice, Hifumi." Celestia began. "When you are better than others, those below you aren't human anymore. They turn into parasites, seeking only to feed off of your talent. Many a man and woman have tried climbing the ranks of my beloved organization by riding my curtails. None have succeed. Take their deception not to heart, it's a testament to their lack of talent. Nothing more and nothing less." 

"Thank you for kind words! But I never let it keep me down anyhow! Lady Luck blessed me with an amazing talent! No one has luck that rivals mine!” Hifumi’s voice went into a slight whisper. “I don’t even know how to play that game over there, I pressed random buttons and the rest was pure luck!” 

“I do wonder who would win in a bet, you or the late Yasuhiro.” Celestia asked. 

Before Hifumi could respond, Makoto yelled in frustration. “No, Kiyotaka that's not-How have you not gotten this? You have to go faster!”

“But the speed limit sign said 60 km/h!” Responded Kiyotaka, before the car on screen exploded for going to slow.

“You know what, maybe video games aren’t for you.” Makoto said, absolutely defeated.

There was a silence that was quickly broken by Celestia herself. Seeing the stern Kiyotaka just trying his best at a game that is made for you to break rules was simply funny, through and through. Her laughter was followed by Hifumi, and Makoto Kiyotaka joined soon as well.


	21. Rising Action

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Before Celestia knew it, Kiyotaka was saying goodnight to her and heading to his own room.

“Kiyotaka.” She called out to the detective as he walked away. He instinctively turned. Celestia smiled. “I appreciate the police escort.”

“Anytime, Celestia.” He smiled back as he tipped his blue cap and continued on. 

It was another nightmare filled night for Celestia. This time, it was her cat running through a maze. No matter how fast Celestia pursued the feline, all she could spot was his tail going around another corner. Eventually, she thought she had cornered her beloved pet, grabbing it and bringing him closer to her chest to embrace. But as she did so, she felt only cold metal as she looked down and saw a feline Monokuma staring up at her, ringing that same damn laugh. 

She woke up panting, but okay. Similar to the day prior, there was a knocking at her door. And as expected, it was Kiyotaka. It was 10, the same time she woke up before.

“Celestia I-” Kiyotaka begna.

“Yes yes, I’ll be right out.” Celestia cut him off and closed the door. She dressed and headed out, to find Kiyotaka still waiting. “To breakfast then.”

The pair walked in step and made their way to the cafeteria. Neither of them were surprised when the majority of their classmates were gone. By 10:15, Aoi and Byakuya, Tokou and Mukuro, Sayaka, and Junko were sitting down. Junko mentioned wanting to wake everyone up, but it was decided that it would be better to let people sleep. As they were eating, Junko peered at Sayaka, sitting alone.

“Hey Sayka!” Junko said, getting the Baseball players attention. “Where’s Leon? Sleep in if you want, but if your partner is in your room you gotta be to!” 

Sayaka yawned for a moment before rubbing her eyes. “Oh yeah, I’ll go and see what he’s up to. Most of us seem to be done with breakfast, I’ll tell him he can have some leftovers.”

Junko started to pick up the dishes, it had been her turn to make breakfast and thus her duty to clean up. 

Celestia and Kiyotaka helped Junko with the dishes, or more accurately, Celestia watched Kiyotaka help. Around 10:30, the dining room was clean again and Kiyotaka and Celestia were roaming the halls.

“Celestia, is there anything you would like to do?” Kiyotaka asked.

“Hm, well I am growing quite bored, but I have no set agenda.” Celestia responded.

“Then what shall we do.” Kiyotaka thought for a moment. “There’s a physics lab on the third floor, and I’ve read about this chemical formula that reveals fingerprints, they even glow neon! Perhaps I could try and create it using the materials in the lab.”

“That seems...Interesting. I will accompany you, sure.” Celestia said, walking in step with the detective. Stair by stair, step by step, the pair walked to the third floor. For a moment, Celestia was tempted to go back to the racing game, but she’d had enough of her fill.

They continued down the hallway. And as the walked, Celestia was suddenly very aware of time. The seconds ticked by on the clock on the wall, each one in sync with the click of her heels on the ground. Something about the atmosphere was different, and every step was conscious. Celestia could see the door to the physics lab, and as she got closer there was more hesitation in her mind. She reached the door, and put her hand on the knob, but didn’t turn it.

“Celestia, is something wrong?” Kiyotaka asked, looking worryingly at Celestia. 

“No...No it’s nothing. I just have a bad feeling in my gut.” As she said this, she twisted the knob and pushed the door open. 

The feeling of her heart being tugged toward the ground manifested in physical form as she stared into the room. 

Similar to the feeling you get when your arm goes numb, Celestia’s mind felt like static.

What she was seeing couldn’t be true.

There’s a boy on his back, a corpse.

She couldn’t believe her eyes.

Makoto couldn’t be dead.


	22. High Tension Investigation Part 1

Time seemed to stop as Celestia’s eyes darted around the gruesome scene. The neon pink that had puddled around the head was the first thing Celestia had noticed. The deaths she had seen were brutal, poisoning and strangulation aren’t something that someone would laugh at, but this was different. Even from the doorway, she could see part of Makoto’s skull had been caved in in a brutal fashion. The second thing that she noticed was the gleam that was covering Makoto’s corpse, it seemed as if there was a shine to his body. Instinctively, Celestia took a back outside of the room. 

“Celestia, what’s wrong!” Kiyotaka asked while moving to look into the room. He reeled back, but kept his stern expression.

“Somebody, help us!” Celestia screamed towards the other end of the hallway. 

Turning the corner after a minute was Byakuya Togami followed by Aoi. “What’s happened?” He yelled as he came running. All Celestia did was point to the room. The literary boy stepped inside, and a familiar announcement rang through the school.

“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may spend however you’d like, the class trial will begin! All students who wish to investigate please report to the physics lab.”

Kiyotaka, not waiting for anyone else to funnel into the room, looked at the three that was standing there with them. 

“My friends, listen to me carefully. We must arrest Hifumi Yamada immediately!” Kiyotaka ordered.

“I don’t take orders from yo-” Byakuya began, but was promptly cut off.’’

“Now isn’t the time Byakuya! At least tell the others to guard him. This seems rash, I know, but there is a very high chance that Hifumi was the one who committed this crime.

Seemingly convinced, Byakuya huffed as he ran back down the hall to the others. Aoi stood stunned for a moment, the tears welling up in her eyes were apparent, but she soon followed. It was now just Kiyotaka and Celestia in the room with Makoto’s corpse. Swallowing the grief of seeing someone who she legitimately considered a friend in such a state, she kneeled down for a closer inspection of the body. Touching the body revealed that the shine she had noticed was, in fact, some kind of chemical by the smell of it. It was likely something from the cabinet of chemicals in the lab, but what specifically she did not know.

“Celestia, take a look at this.” Kiyotaka said as he looked behind the cabinet itself. “I believe I see something.” He strained his arm a bit, stretching it to an uncomfortable level, but was rewarded when he pulled back a small white cloth. Celestia, someone who needs glasses but uses contacts instead, recognized the cloth as one that is used to clean glasses.

“A telling piece of evidence.” Said Kiyotaka, inspecting the cloth. “It seems there is some blood on it is well.”

“Again...Fucking again?!” From the doorway Junko’s voice was heard. Her face was red from anger, and she was yelling quite loud. 

“Junko, there is a good chance the culprit was Hifuimi, Makoto’s ‘buddy’. Your system has helped this investigation by giving us a suspect, do not despair, you did good.” Kiyotaka reassured the Moral Compass. 

“Yeah, Byakuya told me. I ran ahead to make sure what they said was true. Hifumi was walking into the cafeteria when I saw him, before I heard the announcement. I expect Byakuya, Aoi, Leon, and Sayaka have him held there. It looks like it’ll be up to you two, myself, and Mukuro and Tokou to investigate, but those two are damned useless most of the time. One’s a freak and the other is basically a walking corpse.” Junko explained.

“Y-You’re a bitch, y-you know that!” Tokou said entering the room, Mukuro following behind.

Mukuro said nothing, she simply looked at Makoto’s body with an almost indifferent look. 

“Yes, well, let’s see if we can find anything else in this room.” Kiyotaka said. The five of them proceeded to sweep the room top to bottom. After twenty minutes Kiyotaka spoke again. “I don’t believe we are going to find anything here. We should go speak to the others.”

“One second Scooby doo.” Junko said. Using her foot, she turned the body over in its side. Now visible was a shard of curved glass, a couple inches long. 

“Good find Junko. I guess I would have missed that.” Kiyotaka said. 

“My, how uncharacteristic of you.” Celestia said. 

“L-Looks like the detective has l-lost his edge!” Tokou said.

“Quiet the both of ya, everyone misses things. Kiyotaka does good work! Positive reinforcement is super moral!” Junko said. “But it this evidence can wait, we’ve got a huge living piece of evidence in the cafeteria. We should see to the main suspect.” 

With that, the five of them exited the room, Kiyotaka being the last one out. They all made their way to the cafeteria.

Entering the cafeteria, all of her missing classmates were accounted for. Hifumi was sitting at one of the smaller round tables, Leon behind him and Byakuya across from him.

“We know you did it. You ought to confess now and save yourself the strife.” Byakuya said, looming over Hifumi. Despite his smaller frame, his aura of importance gave him a sense of authority as he spoke.

“As I’ve told you, I did not hurt Makoto!” Hifumi said, all but wailing. 

“You damn liar! You bludgeoned him, probably with a hammer or something!” Leon said from behind him. 

“Now before we get to the water boarding, remember any execution is to be handled by me! If you kill a culprit then I guess I’d have to choice but to put YOU on trial! Puhuhuhu!” Once again appearing out of nowhere, Monkuma was on the large table near the center of the room. “You guys haven’t even got the Monokuma file for this murder yet!” 

With the bear’s words, all of the E-Handbooks in the cafeteria buzzed. For the third miserable time, Celestia looked at the Monkuma file.  
Time of Death: Undetermined.  
Cause of Death: Blunt Force trauma due to a hit to the back of the head.  
The body was discovered in the physics lab around 10:30 AM. 

“So the cause of death was something blunt?” Sayaka asked.

“It appears so.” Byakuya said. 

Kiyotaka walked towards Byakuya. He walked as far as to place his hands on the table and stare Hifumi in the eyes. “Why would you do this Hifumi.”

“I didn’t!” Hifumi cried. Several mouths opened to respond, but Celestia did first.

“Kiyotaka, I share your passion for getting this trial over and justice served, as you say so often. And while the evidence currently points to Hifumi, an investigation can’t hurt.”

Kiyotaka took a step back while nodding. “I...I agree Celestia. We shouldn’t be too rash. But Hifumi isn’t to go near the scene.”

“I’ll watch him ‘till the trial. Sayaka and I aren’t necessarily the best at investigating, we’ll hang around here.” Leon offered.

“Volunteering is always super moral!” Junko said. “I’m going to sweep the second floor, you all investigate how you see fit.” 

“Celestia, I must investigate Makoto’s body some more. Speak to Hifumi if you would like his account.” Kiyotaka said. 

“Of course. Be safe, Kiyotaka.” Celestia said as he nodded and left. Celestia walked to the table where Hifumi was sat. Leon and Sayaka were sat near the entrance, so they would definitely see if he tried to leave, but not necessarily his movements. As she sat down, Hifumi began to speak. 

“I owe you many thanks Lady Ludenberg! If it wasn’t for your intervention I fear I would have been lynched by my classmates!”

“Thank me after the trial if we are both alive. To defend someone who is obviously guilty is to perhaps defend someone who was falsely accused. And when your life depends on the correct outcome, it is simply smart to be thorough.” Celestia explained. “Now let me ask, where were you after the nighttime announcement last night? Did you leave your room at all? Know that if you lie, I will now, and you will make me look like an utter fool for trusting you at all, and those who make a fool of me don’t live to do it twice.” Celestia was sure to emphasize the words as she did her subordinates when there were skirmishes over territory or who owed who protection money. She was using her force of will as the Super High School Level Biker Gang leader to try and force the truth out of the luckster.

“I’m in your debt Celestia, I wouldn’t lie to you! I swear on my luck itself that I went to bed at nighttime and didn’t wake up until I heard that announcement. I didn’t take a step out all night...I don’t know why Makoto would go out without me either, the buddy system was supposed to keep us safe.” Hifumi explained.

Celestia stood up and walked away. She now had Hifumi’s account, and that was all that she needed from him. The rotund man deflated as she did so, but Celestia had to get going. Investigate some more near the corpse itself, but as she began to ascend the stairs while deep in thought, she was crashed into, sending both her and whoever ran into her down to the floor.

“WATCH IT YOU DAMN MORON!” Celestia said while still on her back. 

“M-Maybe you should w-watch it.” Muttered Tokou. The two got up and dusted themselves off.

“Why on earth are you in such a hurry? Is something the matter?” Celestia asked, a million different awful scenarios go through her head.

“K-Kiyotaka cut his h-hand on some glass, I’m just g-getting him a bandage.” Tokou said.

With the intent of helping Tokou find the bandages, but not without an exaggerated eye roll, Celestia followed the fortune teller into the infirmary. But when she entered, she noticed that it was different then the last time.

“My, there’s quite the mess in here.” Celestia looked at the room, boxes covered the floor. It looked as if someone had ransacked the room. 

“W-Who did this?! I was in here y-yesterday and it was fine!” Tokou said while moving some boxes on one of the shelves and retrieving a box of bandages. While she turned to leave, she accidentally knocked over a small trash can. “ACK” Is all she could get out before hitting the ground. 

Celestia kneeled down, and Tokou reached her hand up to reach Celestia’s, expecting help, but Celestia went passed her and picked up a box that had tumbled from the can. She inspected the box labeled Robaride. In parentheses “Once asleep, stay asleep!” and as she turned it over, she saw the warning that this medicine might cause “Nightmares, sleep paralysis, or insomnia after stopping use of Robaride.”

“It seems to be some sort of sleeping aid…” Celestia said aloud. 

“You’re s-supposed to o-offer me a hand up!” Tokou said, standing up by herself. “Of course s-some of us need s-sleep aids. Can you blame them?” 

“Of course I understand the need of such a thing but…” Celestia picked up another in her other hand and looked at the other two boxed. “This much is excess to the point of overdose.”

Celestia thought for a moment on what this could mean, but couldn’t connect all of the dots just yet. She had more investigating to do, and more clues to find.


	23. High Tension Investigation Part 2

Celestia, still holding the box of the sleep aid, looked around some more. The shelves were stocked well, about three boxes of any given thing could be on a shelf from the back to the front without anything falling off. As she looked at one of the shelves that had something knocked off, she saw something strange. A single red hair was on the shelf, stuck to the second box in the row. 

“Interesting…” She said as she picked it up, ensuring the color wasn’t a trick of the light. She noted it, and looked for anything else. But it seemed that she had found all that the room had to offer. “There seems to be nothing left. I will go back to the scene now. Tokou, if you would like to rest for a moment, I can bring the bandage to Kiyotaka.”

“I-I will be fine!” Tokou said defensively, snatching the box from the ground. 

The two of them walked up the stairs together, making their way up to the third floor. 

“So Tokou, how many of our compatriots are investigating the actual scene of the crime?” Celestia inquired.

“W-Well Mukuro and I, and Kiyotaka too. B-Byakyua and the big boobed programmer said they wanted to investigate the l-library. Junko w-went with them.” 

The two were on the third floor, walking towards the physics lab. From the art room, there is a straight hallway that ends with two paths, the left path leading to the physics lab while the right went to a grate blocking a set of ascending staircases.The reason Celestia noted this was because of the smell wafting through the air. The smell of something burning, and it was most certainly coming from the right.

“Tokou...Do you smell that?” Celestia said, coming to a dead stop.

Tokou took in a large breath through her nose before nodding. Celestia moved at a quickened pace towards the right path, and noticed something she hadn’t before. A shine, similar to the one she had noticed on Makoto, on the floor in a line going towards the grate from somewhere near the physics lab. This only worsened her anxiety about the situation, as she sprinted, following the path that the line of strange liquid made. As she turned the corner to the grate, she saw the smallest remnant of a red candle in the center of the shining substance, the wick burning. She had a terrible feeling, and the wick was seconds away from touching the ground. She took a step to snuff the flame, but she wasn’t quick enough. The wax was melted away, and the flame connected with the shiny liquid. Just as Celestia feared, a small explosion caused her to a avert her eyes. When she looked back, the flame was crawling like a snake on the liquid path. She had no hopes of catching the flames, so just ran like hell behind it. She could now tell where the line of liquid ended, the physics lab. Celestia in the hallway about 20 feet away from the lab, seeing the open door. Makoto’s corpse was visible at this angle, and she could see Mukuro knelt down next to it, she appeared to be looking at something white in her hands. Her back was turned from the hall, and thus she couldn’t see the flames. 

“Mukuro!” Celetia yelled, completely helpless to do anything else.

Mukuro glanced behind her, and the last thing Celestia saw was Mukuro bring her clutched hands to her face. But the flames carried by the liquid reached the corpse. A few things came together in Celestia’s head, what exactly the gleam on Makoto was and what purpose it served. But the revelation was too late. The fire reached the corpse, and a much larger explosion than the small puddle in the other hall caused erupted in the lab. 

The sound was loud and the heat prominent, but Celestia only hesitated for a moment before running into the room. She saw Kiyotaka in the back room, his arm over his mouth preventing himself from inhaling the smoke. Mukuro was worse for wear. She was now at the back wall, seemingly having been slammed into it by the explosion. She wanted to run to her side, but Makoto’s burning corpse was blocking the path. Suddenly, several openings in the ceilings sprung out and began sprinkling the room with water. At the same time, a sound like a vacuum filled the room as the smoke dissipated into unseen vents. 

With nothing obstructing her now, Celestia ran to Mukuro. She placed her hand on her neck, searching for a pulse. And with a sigh of relief, she found one, however faint. But that didn’t mean Mukuro looked okay, she had bad burns on her face and hands and her breathing seemed labored. 

“Kiyotaka, Tokou, please help me. Kiyotaka grab her feet, Tokou and I will get her sides. To the infirmary, now.” Celestia ordered. The two didn’t question it, Kiyotaka picked up Mukuro’s bottom side while Tokou and Celestia lifted the top side. The stairs were difficult, but it only took about 5 minutes to get Mukuro in a bed in the infirmary. The commotion caught the attention of everyone else, and they soon filled the room. Everyone other than Leon and Hifumi, Sayaka being sent to check on what happened while Leon watched Hifumi still, cramped into the smaller room. They looked at the Heir in the bed, now with bandages covering half of her face.

“What..What the hell happened?” Junko asked.

“It was like Makoto’s corpse was rigged to explode…” Celestia explained. “There was a candle that, once melted, lit a fire that sparked explosive material that Makoto’s body was doused in. Mukuro was caught in it.” 

“That’s insane, why would someone do that?” Aoi asked.

“Don’t ask obvious questions.” Byakuya said. “The only reason someone would rig a corpse to is to ensure no evidence is left behind. The question is why in such a way to cause a delay.” 

Aoi walked up to Mukuro and spoke to her in a soft voice. “I’m so sorry. We’ll find who did this.” She looked down at the heir with a dejected look on her face. But the sorrowful look turned to a curious one as she reached for Mukuro’s hand, still clenched in a fist. She easily enough pried her hand open and pulled a piece of paper out, with burnt edges.

“Aoi, what’s that?” Junko asked.

Aoi turned and held out the paper. Junko grabbed it and read the contents aloud.

“Meet in the physics lab at 11.” Junko paused for a moment. “Damn it, it looks like it was signed. Well it was before the fire.” 

“So the fire did its presumed job.” Kiyotaka said, obviously annoyed at the situation. 

“But from what I saw, someone most certainly knows what was on that paper. Two people actually.” Celestia deduced. 

“Who do you think that would be?” Sayaka asked.

“The murderer and...Mukuro. Right before the explosion I saw her take the paper out and glance at it. I’m sure she knows what it said.” 

Celestia’s words were obvious, but no one wanted to mention it. Someone, either in the room or in the cafeteria, would want Mukuro to die before the trial. 

“This is most important information. If luck is on our side, then she will awake before the trial. But until then, she must be guarded. I nominate myself and Junko.” Kiyotaka declared.

“The detective and the moral compass, I see your logic.” Junko smiled. “Guard duty it is!”

“I’ll go update Leon. Hifumi shouldn't be let out of his sight.” Sayaka said. 

“No.” Kiyotaka said. “With another one of our classmates being put in danger, we need to discover all of what happened, every one of us needs to be doing as much as we can, and with Junko and I now guarding Mukuro, we need you Sayaka. Leon can take care of HIfumi.” 

“Oh...Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.” Sayaka spoke with a hint of sadness.

“Now everyone, search every inch of this school. We haven’t investigated the second floor, that might be a place to begin.’ Kiyotaka said. 

Celestia nodded. Searching everywhere was the smart move, something a detective would certainly recommend. Everyone left the infirmary and began climbing the stairs to the second floor. Celestia began to follow, but then had another idea. 

“Sayaka.” Celestia called out to the blue haired baseball star. 

“Yes, Celestia?” Sayaka turned around as the other students passed her by. 

“Well, I just wanted to make an offer. Kiyotaka has encouraged the lot of us to investigate the second floor, which is a wise move, I don’t believe we have searched it at all. But perhaps we could search the third floor a tad more, hm? I’m sure Tokou, Aoi, and Byakuya can look over the second.” 

“Oh, yeah that makes sense!” Sayaka smiled brightly. Celestia noticed that she was actually missing a tooth on the bottom row, undoubtedly from her profession. 

Celestia nodded as Sayaka joined her in headed to the third floor. Celestia didn’t lead her to the Physics Lab, she believed that that room had been searched enough. She instead went to search the other rooms. She had found Makoto’s corpse sometime around 10:30, and it was already 11:30. She wasn’t sure how much longer the bear was going to give them to investigate, so she insured they walked with a purpose. Sayaka and Celestia combed through the classrooms as well as the recreation room for another half hour, but nothing was found. Afterwards, they went to the art room. The room was impressive. It had painting supplies in the front and eazles set up. A door in the back led to a room with hammers hanging for sculpting purposes. For some reason or another, looking at them causes her to shiver. 

Sayaka went to a few of the boxes in the corner, she paused for a moment before upon opening one of the boxes. Celestia walked over to see what had caused her to pause. Looking inside, she saw some white aprons folded neatly in the box. But atop of the aprons was a blue flashlight with dried pink on it. 

“My my, how interesting.” Celestia said as Sayaka picked it up. The lens was cracked, a shard missing from it. Sayaka pressed the button and, to her surprise, it was still functional.

Celestia was going to respond, but the loud speaker crackled the same sound that signaled an announcement. Celestia braced for the announcement of the trial commencing, but she wasn’t prepared for what was actually being announced.

“Wow, you guys are busy-bodies! Talk about a double whammy, another corpse has been discovered. Any students wishing to participate in the investigation report to the infirmary.”

“Oh no...Do you think its-” Sayaka began.

“Mukuro. Yes I do. How awful. We should go and see.” Celestia responded.

Sayaka nodded and they went back down the stairs once more. The feelings that Celestia had wasn't anxiety, not like when she had found Kyoko’s corpse or when she was forced to watch Yasuhiro’s execution. She knew who had died, she knew how. Now all she had to do was face it. 

Or so she thought. Outside of the infirmary was Leon, hand over his mouth as he ran his fingers anxiously through his hair. 

“Leon, are you okay?” Sayaka asked, running up to him. 

“I just let him go to the bathroom...I didn’t know he would do this…” Leon said, his voice cracking.

“What do you mean?” Sayaka asked.

Celestia pushed past Leon and Sayaka to see for herself what had shaken the swimmer. She opened the door, expecting to see her classmates surrounding the bed they had left Mukuro in, to see Mukuro’s body. But she didn’t.

She saw someone else’s corpse. Junko Enoshima was on the floor, face down. Protruding from her back was a knife. Kiyotaka was sitting on the floor, hands on either side of his head. Byakuya and Aoi stood beside Junko.

“The damned swimmer let Hifumi out to ‘Use the restroom.’” Byakuya said coldly.

“And the next things I know he’s here. He stabbed Junko and knocked me unconscious.” Kiyotaka said, shuttering. "I didn't get a good look at him, but I'm sure it was Hifumi. It has to be."

“We need to find Hifumi..He has to pay for this!” Aoi said with tears in her eyes.

“That we do. A murder is the chance for a narrative, but Hifumi has been inelegant in his...execution.” Byakuya stressed the final word.

“No need kiddos! I know that this is quite the dramatic scene, but the clock is tick tocking! Everyone will be brought to the trial room, so don’t fret yourself with a hunt. But I’m also putting a 15 minute time limit on this one.” Monokuma said, standing atop one of the desks in the infirmary. "I hate nothing more than when things drag on for too long."

“And how are we supposed to do anything in the span on 15 minutes?” Celestia asked the bear.

“We will investigate what we need, but I don’t think it will take that long.” Byakuya declared.

Monokuma chuckled and disappeared and Byakuya was quickly proven right. It was quickly determined that the knife protruding from Junko’s back was from the kitchen. Kiyotaka explained that he and Junko were speaking of trivial matters when someone knocked on the door. Junko had opened it, when someone stabbed her, probably trying to get to Mukuro. Kiyotaka turned to intervene, but was knocked unconscious. It seems that whatever he did was enough to scare the person off. Kiyotaka woke up after Leon came looking for Hifumi when he didn’t return. His scream was heard by Tokou, Byakuya, and Aoi who came running. Celestia excused herself to use the restroom, Aoi accompanying her for safety. And as they left the women's room closest to the infirmary, Celestia decided on a whim to see if there was any evidence that Hifumi actually had went to inside the men's room. But she found the door jammed.

No one knew where Hifumi was in the end, but it wasn't long before Monokuma called for a trial. When he did, Hifumi came, head hung low, in the hall. 

"Who...Was it? The second body?" Hifumi asked.

"You know damn well who it was. You're the one who put the knife in her back." Byakuya growled.

"Junko was a good friend to us...How could you?" Aoi said, her sadness turning into rage.

"I didn't! I swear...I-" Hifumi began, but realized his attempt was fruitless. He fell silent after that point.

No one said anything to him after that, but Celestia did nod at him, ensuring her earlier promise of coming to a truthful conclusion was kept. The elevator ride was excruciating. 

Who could Celestia trust? Who was the true culprit who ended the lives of two of her classmates? Hifumi Yamada was one answer, and there was certainly evidence that damned him. But there were still some unanswered questions, questions that her gut told her she needed to answer. And if there was one thing trustworthy in the whole world, it was her gut.


	24. Third Trial Part One: A Nighttime Debacle

Celestia was at her podium for the third time. She glanced around and couldn’t help but wince at the three empty podiums. Makoto and Junko had crude X’s across there face while Mukuro had an orange question mark, no doubt signaling her unknown status. Monokuma once again explained how the trial works, and the discussion was quickly started.

“We already know who the culprit in this case is. Makoto’s buddy, and the one who killed Junko too, is Hifumi Yamada!” Said Aoi as she pointed an accusatory finger at the luckster.

“I didn’t kill anyone! I swear it!” Hifumi said defensively.

“Perhaps we should detail the evidence that incriminates you, if you are so adamant about your innocence.” Byakuya said while adjusting his glasses.

“The preliminary investigation revealed evidence pointing in the direction of Hifumi. A cleaning cloth for glasses and a shard of glass was found. I suspect that the shard was from a pair of glasses. And as for the murder of Junko, Hifumi was one of the only people on the first floor at the time!” Kiyotaka explained.

“But my glasses haven’t been broken!” Hifumi said, taking off his glasses to show that they were intact.

“Fool.” Byakuya said. “I have many backup pairs in my room, if you broke a pair you could simply grab another from your room.”

“Byakuya is right! There’s nothing else the glass could’ve come from!” Aoi said.

“Allow me to expose that misconception.” Celestia interjected. “While everyone was searching the second floor, Sayaka and I checked the third. We found this.” Celestia produced the flashlight she had found earlier. 

“Ah, Celestia is right! It has blood on it and a shard is missing, that shard could definitely be the one we found!” Sayaka agreed.

“And y-you just now tell us?” Tokou yelled.

“It was a recent discovery. But a great one nonetheless.” Celestia boasted.

“Celestia, you do realize what you found?” Kiyotaka asked.

Celestia thought for a moment, but it was clear what the flashlight was. The dried blood told her everything she needed to know.

“I suspect that this flashlight, found in the art room storage area, is the murder weapon that claimed Makoto’s life.” Celestia explained.

“That doesn’t mean Hifumi didn’t do it.” Said Aoi. “But perhaps we should discuss things we don’t know first. Like the time he died, the Monokuma file doesn’t say it this time.” 

“Good question! When did Makoto kick the bucket?” Leon asked.

“Well it was probably early in the morning, when all of us were asleep.” Sayaka mused.

“That makes sense, it would explain why Makoto missed breakfast.” Aoi agreed.

“A very reasonable deduction Sayaka!” Said Kiyotaka.

A reasonable deduction? No, that’s not what Celestia would call it. There was a piece of evidence that completely contradicted the idea that Makoto was killed in the time period they described. 

“Are we forgetting the paper that Mukuro almost died for us to see?” Celestia asked.

“Celestia is right.” Byakuya said. ‘“Meet in the Physics lab at 11. That’s what the note that Mukuro was gripping said. It doesn’t take a quarter of my brain power to determine that Makoto either died at 11 or sometime soon after.” 

“But isn’t that assuming that whoever met him killed him? What if it wasn’t whoever met Makoto? That could totally be a false assumption, yeah?” Aoi asked.

“Well, let me ask then. Would anyone like to admit to being with Makoto when he was killed who also claims they are not the murderer?” Asked Celestia. 

To no one’s surprise, there wasn’t a hand that went up. Celestia continued.

“Good. Then we can say henceforth that whoever is discovered to be with Makoto at 11 was the person who killed both him and Junko.” 

“I agree, Celestia!” Kiyotaka said. “Which is why the finger once again falls onto Hifumi Yamada! With Junko’s buddy system in place, the likelihood of Makoto’s murderer being Makoto’s killer skyrockets!” 

“H-Hey! I was Makoto’s buddy, I stayed with him from when we woke up to when the nighttime announcement rang!” Hifumi yelled in defense. 

“But Makoto was pretty good at following rules.” Sayaka said. 

“Yeah, it seems like he’d be the type to be honor bound or whatever to follow the rules. It’s kinda hard to believe he’d go somewhere without Hifumi when he agreed to not leave his side.” Leon said.

“But he told me what he was doing!” Hifumi yelled, causing every other student to look on dumbfounded. 

“He...Told you what exactly?” Asked Kiyotaka.

“Makoto had told me that he was meeting someone at night to investigate something.” Hifumi said.

“Hifumi, what are you talking about?” Celestia asked, growing more impatient with having to learn important facts during the trial.

“Well who was he with?!” Leon asked in a louder voice.

“I don’t know!” Hifumi yelled in response “Makoto didn’t tell me, he just said that he was investigating at night.”

“He could totally be lying.” Aoi said. “If Hifumi did kill Makoto and Junko we shouldn’t believe him, right?” 

“I concur, Aoi! Anything Hifumi says is suspect!” Kiyotaka said.

Celestia gritted her teeth. She expected Aoi to be stubborn at times, irrationally so, but why was Kiyotaka? She pushed that question to the back of her mind. She didn’t need evidence that exonerated Hifumi. But she needed was something to put forth doubt, just something that could allow the conversation move forward.

“Aoi, Kiyotaka, I have a question.” Celestia said. “That note we found on Makoto’s body, the one that detailed where they would meet. I just have to ask, why would Hifumi, the only one among us with constant access to Makoto, need written instructions to inform him where they should meet?”

“Well…” Aoi began. “I don’t know.” 

That wasn’t much, but it was something. The pause in opposition was all Celestia needed to get the trial back on track. Hifumi’s revelation about Makoto investigating something didn’t do much. It confirmed what Celestia already knew, that Makoto was murdered at night. Someone at night killed Makoto, so all that was needed to be done was to pinpoint who was out during night. What evidence was there that anyone was out of their dorm?

“Tokou.” Asked Celestia. “Regarding the infirmary, you said that, as far as you know, it hadn’t been ransacked by the time you went to bed?”

“W-What are you talking about t-that for?” Tokou asked.

“Please, just answer the question.” Celestia responded. Why must her classmates be so combative?

“Y-Yes. I went to the infirmary before nighttime and i-it was nice and tidy, but t-the next day when we w-went it was trashed.” Tokou explained.

“So we can assume that someone, presumably the murderer, had been in the infirmary. What on Earth for?” Byakuya said. 

“W-Well things were flung from the shelves, and there were a bunch of empty boxes of Robaride, t-the sleep aid.” Tokou continued.

“If the boxes were empty, I doubt that whoever was in the infirmary was looking for it. Maybe someone else needed it for some reason.” Aoi said.

“The motivation is irrelevant at this point!” Kiyotaka said. “ We need to discover who was in there.”

Interesting question. Who was rummaging in the infirmary, who was out during the nighttime. The answer to this question could very easily lead to discovery of the culprit.

“Hey, we’re being a bit too quick here aren’t we?” Leon said. 

“Leon?” Sayaka asked.

“I mean, think about it. Just because someone was out during nighttime, that doesn’t mean they killed anyone!” Leon uttered.

“I disagree. The chance was given earlier to come forward if you were out and not the murderer.” Said Byakuya.

“But-” Leon began, but was stopped by Celestia’s voice.

“Leon, are you perhaps insinuating that whoever was in the infirmary could be innocent because it was you?” 

“What...Did you just say?!” Leon yelled back.

“Yeah, don’t just say random stuff Celestia!” Sayaka joined in.

“Quiet Sayaka! Allow justice to run its course unobstructed.” Kiyotaka ordered. 

“Leon Kuwata, while investigating the infirmary, I discovered a distinctly colored strand of hair. A red one. And out of all of us here, you are the only one with red hair.” Celestia voiced.

“T-That was because I was in there a couple of days ago. Yeah, my hair could’ve gotten in their anytime!” Leon said.

“No, it couldn’t have. The boxes are stocked three deep, and this hair was found stuck near the box in the back of the shelf. Meaning it could have only gotten their during or after the raid itself.” 

“I...I can explain!” Leon said.

Celestia wondered how he could explain what had just been revealed. Leon was now confirmed to have been out during nighttime. Leon Kuwata, the Super High School Level Swimmer. Could he have killed Makoto Naegi? That is the conclusion the evidence leads Celestia to believe. But the pieces are still coming together, there are still blanks. Things weren't over yet. 


	25. Third Trial Part Two: A Rule Broken (Along With A Skull!)

“Well Leon? We’re waiting.” Byakuya said.

Leon stood there, looking at his feet.

“Leon, you said you would explain so do it!” Sayaka said. “I know you didn’t do this, so just tell us what you were doing.” 

“I...I couldn’t sleep so I was looking for some...Help.” Leon scratched the back of his head. “Ya know, pharmaceutical help…” 

“Leon Kuwata, are you implying you were seeking drugs?!” Kiyotaka asked forcefully. 

“Yeah...But only to help me sleep, nothing hard. But there wasn’t anything there so I, uh, decided I was gonna try and look in the physics lab. I knew there was a bunch of chemicals, I thought I might as well look, right?” Leon explained.

“Leon, are you admitting you were in the physics lab at nighttime?” Celestia asked. “That would mean you were at the scene of the murder at the time it took place.”

“I’m s-starting to think the o-only reason you float is because y-your head is full of hot air! You just confessed to murdering Makoto” Said Tokou.

“But I didn’t! Here’s what happened. It was about 11:15, and I couldn’t sleep. I got up and went to the infirmary. They had that Robaride stuff, but that doesn't help you sleep, it just keeps you asleep. After that, I went to the physics lab...That’s when I saw Makoto, lying on the floor. I would’ve gone to help him but then I heard a noise and saw a bright light being shone at me. I ran back down and hid in my room. I was up for an hour before I could sleep.” Leon spoke predominantly to Sayaka as he plead for his innocence. 

“I mean...The flashlight was functional! It could’ve happened!” Sayaka said.

“That is an unlikely story without proof, Leon. Don’t fall for it, Sayaka.” Kiyotaka spoke without an ounce of pity. 

“I must concur with the detective, it is a wild claim.” Byakuya said in agreement.

This was a deadlock. But Celestia might know how to break it.

“Monokuma.” Celestia addressed the bear that was pretending to be asleep. The pillow its head was on flew back as the mechanical bear dramatically whipped its head backwards.

“Yes, my favorite student with a bike-related talent?” 

“The body discovery announcement that plays after a body is found. What are the prerequisites that must be met for one to ring?” Celestia inquired.

“Oh, that’s an easy one! Basically, when someone is murdered, it takes three people, the blackend not included, to see the body to trigger the announcement. For Chihiro it was Celestia, Kiyotaka, and SHHHH.” A noise akin to TV static came out of the bears mouth. “Oh, well that one wasn’t revealed so I’ll sit on it. And for Mondo it was Mukuro, Celestia, and Leon. I would tell ya about good ol’ Makoto and Junko, but spoilers and all.” 

“Celestia, why would you ask that?” Aoi asked. 

“Think about it. When this trial started, our thinking was that I was the first one to discover the body, Kiyotaka was second, and Byakuya was third. But if what Leon said was true, a rather large but, then the order of discovery is skewed. Byakuya was most certainly still the third person to discover the body, as that is when the announcement rang out. But if Leon was the first, then that would mean…” Celestia spoke with certainty. This was a plausible scenario, and she had to bring it up, no matter the implications. “Either Kiyotaka or myself didn’t count for the announcement.”

“Are you a-admitting that you are a prime s-suspect?” Tokou asked.

“Celestia, while I respect what you are trying to do, I must argue that entertaining Leon’s assertion is ridiculous!” Kiyotaka countered. 

“Ridiculous? No, Kiyotaka. As you have taught me, seeking justice and the truth is quite the noble pursuit.” The platitudes almost caught in Celestia’s throat. She didn’t care for meaningless words, but that was often exactly what others needed to spur them into action.

“Kiyotaka, maybe you should let her talk.” Aoi said.

“I agree. Lets see where this debate goes.” Byakuya agreed. 

“Fine!” Kiyotaka said. “But there is no more evidence regarding Makoto, so Leon is still the only suspect. The only evidence in his defense is his word!”

 

“You’ve got that...Right, Kiyotaka.” Celestia said. “It seems that we have combed through the evidence left by Makoto’s killer. However, we haven’t touched Junko’s murder yet.”

“Yeah! Let’s look at how Junko died, that’ll prove Leon didn’t do anything!” Sayaka said with a reassuring glance towards Leon.

“T-The suspects are Leon, C-Celestia, and Kiyotaka! Oh, and Hifumi, I’m still not sure that fat b-bastard didn’t actually do it!” Tokou said.

“Why must you persist in the suspicion of me?!” Hifumi yelled in despair.

“We should start from what we know about Junko dying before throwing names around.” Aoi said.

“If I remember right, Junko died during the second round of investigations after Mukuro got hurt. I was with Celestia during that time, so she’s out.” Sayaka explained. 

“So Leon, Kiyotaka, and Hifumi.” Byakuya said. “One of you murdered Junko.”

Celestia let out a sigh of relief. She knew very well that she had an alibi for Junko’s murder, but she knew that class trials had a way of causing the truth to be stalled. 

“All of the people on the first floor are suspects. Fitting, considering everyone else would have alibis anyhow.” Celestia said. 

“S-So what happened down t-there.” Tokou asked.

“I was watching Hifumi, like I was told to!” Leon began. “And then Hifumi asked to go to the restroom, but I stayed in the cafeteria, I never left!”

“All I asked was to go to the bathroom! Nature came calling! But on my way out the door was jammed.” Hifumi yelled.

“And while Junko and I were watching Mukuro, someone knocked on the door and stabbed her! I heard it, and while I was turning to see, I was knocked unconscious.” Kiyotaka described.

One of these men were lying, Celestia knew that. One of them moved in a way that they didn’t describe. All Celestia could do was prove that someone was telling the truth.

“Hifumi has told the truth once more.” Celestia stated. “While we assumed he was hiding from us, he was stuck in the restroom.”

“Celestia, why do you have such blind faith in this man?” Kiyotaka asked. 

“Not blind faith, dear Kiyotaka. I saw for myself that the men’s restroom was stuck shut, so that checks out. And think about it, Monokuma’s announcement of “not worrying” about finding Hifumi is suspicious, correct? This ‘Game’ that Monokuma has forced us in, investigation is its key piece. The only situation where I see Monokuma discouraging us to investigate is when there’s no gain to it, like when someone is stuck behind a closed door we didn’t have the equipment to get past.” 

“Hey!” Monokuma banged its gavel. “Where do you get off using my kind declaration that was meant to help you to discover who the blackened is?!” 

“I apologize, Monokuma. I apologize that you had such a massive oversight in what you decided to announce.” Celestia shot back with a glare. 

“S-So you’re saying that the p-person who killed Junko, and in turn M-Makoto, was either Leon or Kiyotaka…” Tokou stated hesitantly. 

“Then it’s decided, the culprit in this case is Leon Kuwata!” Kiyotaka declared. 

“No!” Sayaka yelled back. “It must be Kiyotaka!” 

“Sayaka is right, there’s no way I did this. I was in the cafeteria and didn’t leave!” Leon screamed in agreement. 

“I don’t know, but Kiyotaka has been pretty vital in past cases, and he’s a detective. I don’t think he’d do this.” Aoi speculated.

“Kiyotaka seems to be a good detective. His sense of duty is beyond reproach.” Byakuya said.

“B-But Leon is too dumb to do this!” Tokou said, earning her glares from both of the accused parties. 

“I can’t deny these accusations enough! My pursuit of justice is key to my core identity and I would never compromise it! My words were true. I heard Junko open the door and then fall immediately to the ground, I was then knocked unconscious!” Kiyotaka once again explained. 

Celestia listened closely at the detectives words. Kiyotaka claims that Junko opened the door and was stabbed. If what he’s saying is true, Leon was the only suspect and was thus guilty. But what he said wasn’t true.

“Kiyotaka, why are you lying?” Celestia said without hesitation. 

“Celestia?” Kiyotaka asked, face contorted with a look of confusion or betrayal, perhaps both. 

“You have said Junko opened the door and was thus stabbed immediately. But think, all of you. We found the knife in Junko’s back.” Celestia spelled out her deductions. “Why lie about that detail Kiyotaka?” 

“What on Earth has gotten into you Celestia?!” Kiyotaka demanded.

“Answer the question.” Byakuya answered. 

“Well I...Being knocked unconscious must’ve skewed my memory.” Kiyotaka clarified. 

“Well if you weren’t sure then why the hell did you say it with so much confidence!” Leon asked.

“Quiet you murderer!” Kiyotaka yelled back. “A slip of the mind means absolutely nothing, especially when that’s all the evidence you have. That’s what we call circumstantial evidence!” 

Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Super High School Level Detective. Celestia noted his amazing ability to discover clues and present evidence. But when it came to lying, he might as well have been a petty criminal. The more Celestia thought of the circumstances surrounding what happened to Mukuro, the evidence discovered at the scene of Makoto’s murder, and Junko’s murder the more the truth became obvious. She let her mind be clouded, but it turned clear. 

“Kiyotaka, I think there is some damning evidence that you are ignoring.” She stated clearly and confidently. It was now just her and Kiyotaka, firing back and forth.

“Liar! I see now, Celestia is an accomplice to murder!” Kiyotaka yelled. 

“The cloth, the kind used for glasses. It was quite an interesting find.” 

“The cloth? That’s not evidence of anything! Where’s the evidence, the real evidence!” 

“Oh, this is the real evidence. Proved by the fact that it was used as key evidence to blame Hifumi.”

“Well before we heard Leon’s testimony. I thought...I thought that the cloth indicated Hifumi’s guilt!” 

“That’s what we all thought. You were the one that found that cloth, out of my view, actually. I didn’t even think twice about you finding such vital evidence, you are the Detective of the group. It’s also why no one questioned the fact that you were the one with Mukuro when the fire happened.”

“Are-Are you suggesting that I falsified evidence? That’s nothing but speculation!” 

“Ah, the argument of speculation and circumstantial evidence work in a courtroom, but this is not one. This is sham created by Monokuma, and we are your jurors. If it was, in fact, you who did this, many pieces of the puzzle fit together. Makoto being willing to meet with someone to investigate makes sense, if you are the one asking him to volunteer." 

“You...Were using our trust to try and point me as the culprit!” Hifumi yelled in realization

“Is that true Kiyotaka?” Aoi asked in almost a whisper.

“It has to be!” Sayaka said. 

“We were blinded by our faith in one of our classmates then? Disgraceful.” Byakuya said in a cold demeanor. 

“No, I didn’t do this!” Kiyotaka yelled.

“Please, allow me to explain what happened here. From the beginning.  
Everything began last night, apparently around 11 at night. The murderer had asked Makoto Naegi to meet him in the physics lab at night, under the guise of investigating something. What, we don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. While there, the murderer’s plan was done. A simple blow to the head was all that it took. Not much evidence at all was left, but now that we know the talent of the individual, that makes sense, they likely knew how to prevent any overt evidence from being left behind. In fact, the culprit doused the corpse in a flammable liquid with the intent to burn the body, and thus any evidence. But they didn’t expect Leon, looking for some chemicals to help him sleep, to walk in. The murderer turned the flashlight on him, scaring him back to his room fearing for his life after seeing Makoto’s corpse. If I had to wager, the culprit wasn’t sure if Leon was going to come back, and thus went back to their room after hiding the murder weapon. They body was discovered the day after by myself, Kiyotaka, and Byakuya. But we didn’t know that, with Leon’s admission, that meant that the the lists of suspects severely shortened.”

“Celestia, you are jumping to conclusions!” Kiyotaka shouted, but Celestia continued.

“The investigation was initiated soon after. One person was particularly adamant about Hifumi being the culprit, even ordering the arrest of Hifumi. It was that same person who was the last one out of the room, trailing the rest of us, which should’ve raised suspicion after what would happen later. We interrogated Hifumi, with myself being the only one advocating for more investigation. It is very likely that it was my persistence that caused the events that killed Junko, but it also gave us the evidence we needed to decipher this mystery. We split once more, and I met Tokou in the infirmary. She informed me that Mukuro and Kiyotaka were alone with Makoto’s body, and that Kiyotaka had sent her away to fetch a bandage. On the way up, we watched in horror at the realization that someone rigged Makoto’s body to explode. Once again, we should have been more suspicious of the individual left with relatively free reign of the body, but we were blinded by our trust. Before the makeshift bomb went off, Mukuro had seen vital evidence, evidence the bomb was likely meant to destroy. We all gathered in the infirmary, and a selfless student offered to watch the unconscious heir. But this was undoubtedly with a sinister motive. I don’t know specifically what happened in the infirmary , but from where Junko was stabbed, we can tell it was some form of a sneak attack, impossible for anyone that was outside of the infirmary. All of these pieces of evidence, when looked at objectively, leave only one suspect.” Celestia inhaled deeply as she pointed at the man in the blue police uniform. “Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Super High School Level Detective. You killed Makoto and Junko, it’s the only logical conclusion.” 

Kiyotaka was silent. He was gripping his podium with white-knuckles, his mouth was open as if ready to throw up a defense, but nothing came out. 

“Well, do you have anything to say?” Byakuya asked. 

“It was you who I saw wasn’t it?!” Leon yelled.

“Kiyotaka...Why?” Aoi asked solemnly. 

“I didn’t-I swear I-” Kiyotaka began, but didn’t continue his fruitless endeavor. “What Monokuma showed us. I had to get out.” The cascade of tears from his eyes flowed as he explained what drove him to murder. “I had to find him!” 

“Well it seems everyone is ready to vote!” Monokuma’s voice rang out, “It’s Voting Time! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? Let’s see!” 

Celestia watched as everyone, even Kiyotaka with tears falling past his face, cast their votes. The same ceremony occured, and Celestia didn’t flinch when Kiyotaka face was the one the wheel stopped on. 

“Well that’s a surprise, a unanimous decision!” Monokuma chuckled. “100% correct. Kiyotaka Ishimaru offed not only Makoto, but Junko too!” 

“Kiyotaka, explain yourself.” Celestia demaned. 

“It was…” Kiyotaka said as he sobbed still. “The motive. I saw him. My grandfather’s right hand man, the man I’ve hunted for years. He was within my grasp, justice must prevail! I have to get to him!” 

“W-Why Junko? Why did you kill her?” Tokou asked with a snarl. 

“Don’t ask stupid questions.” Byakuya said. “Kiyotaka was in the same room as Mukuro, a smart killer would attempt to end her life, unless they want to risk her waking up. Junko was in the way. All I want to know is why not finish what you started.” His last remark was aimed at Kiyotaka.

“Please, allow me to explain everything!” Monokuma said, it smiled whatever a mechanical bear smile might look like, Celestia didn't even register it as an emotion. "After this informational video, that is!" 

Out of nowhere, a projected popped out of the ceiling. The image now being shown on the wall was obviously from a security camera. It showed Makoto and Kiyotaka in the physics lab, Makoto with his back turned to Kiyotaka.

“No!...Please don’t….” Kiyotaka begged, but the video continued to play.


	26. Epilogue of a Change Man

All eyes were on the video screen as it showed what happened in the physics lab. The timestamp said 11:04.

“Kiyotaka, I’m really glad you thought I could help out with this investigation!” The video showed Makoto saying as he looked around the lab.

“I appreciate you coming Makoto.” Kiyotaka responded. “This mystery must be solved so we can uncover who the mastermind is and escape this place.”

“I really respect that about you Kiyotaka.” Makoto said. “You have such a dedication towards justice, it’s amazing!” 

“Don’t say that Makoto.” Kiyotaka turned towards the fanfiction author, who still had his back turned. “Sometimes justice is out of reach. And I can’t do anything about it.”

“Sorry, but I don’t believe that for a second. I’m a big believer in hope, and as long as we cling to that than nothing is out of reach. Especially if you devote yourself to it. And I know it sounds kinda weird, but blindly trusting in the future isn't the worst thing in the world. It's just optimism.” Makoto turned to Kiyotaka with a smile.

“Makoto…” Kiyotaka could only frown in response and look away. 

“What’s wrong? I didn’t upset you did I?” Makoto’s face was now filled with worry.

Kiyotaka smiled in response to his worry. “No, no you didn’t. In fact, I now have the resolve to do what's necessary to bring the evil doers in this world to justice. For I have hope…”

Makoto smiled with relief and turned to go back to investigating. He crouched down near the cabinet, and Kiyotaka continued.

“The only reason I bring up justice is...I’ve been thinking of someone recently. My grandfather…”

“The one that went to jail?”

“Yes, him. You see, he had a right hand man. An awful guy, really. My grandfather confessed that he was actually the one who pulled most of the strings, but when the police went to question him, he was gone in the wind. I set out to be a detective to stop people like him…” Kiyotaka began to shake slightly, but his voice remained steady and thus Makoto remained unaware. “I need to find him. Justice has been out of my reach for so long...And I’ve been offered the chance to grab it...I have to reach out and grab it!” 

Celestia averted her eyes at the last second. The last thing she saw was Makoto beginning to turn his head and Kiyotaka raise the flashlight that was in his hand. She dared not watch the actual act unfold. 

“Well isn’t that something!” Monokuma interjected. “The detective did it! What a classic twist, but I wonder if it veers into the cliche at this point?”

“How the hell do you kill a man while yelling about justice!” Leon screamed at the top of his lungs. 

“W-Why Junko? Why did you kill her?” Aoi asked, tears streaming down her face.

“A-Answer us coward!” Tokou screeched.

Kiyotaka stared at the floor. The shadows cast across his face as to obscure his eyes. Then, without explanation, his shoulders moved up up and down. And suddenly, he bellowed out a laughter. “Ha….Hahahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

“Kiyo...Taka....” Celestia breathed in sharply, distressed. “What has gotten into you?” 

“I was just thinking about what glorious advice Makoto had given me!” Kiyotaka threw his arms back in ecstasy. “Hope! Hope! Hope! It’s all hope! I have devoted myself to justice, you all know that already, but now I realize that whenever I do something that might seem crazy, hope is there for me! Hope lets the crazy ideas flourish! That is what Makoto taught me.” Celestia could have sworn that Kiyotaka’s eyes were now swirling with insanity. 

“Kiyotaka, you killed people!” Sayaka frighteningly spoke. 

“What do you mean, Sayaka? Are you telling me that Detectives should stop interrogating criminals? Or that judges should not issue the death penalty? Sometimes, dear Ms. Maizono, people are hurt in the pursuit of justice! I should’ve seen it earlier! What point is there in a jury if you have hope that your findings are true! That’s why I killed Junko...She started theorizing right in front of me! Can you believe her? With her findings, she would have stopped justice from being able to flourish with the help of my hand.”

Kiyotaka was panting. His monologue had left him out of breath, but the effects were worse on his classmates, who were all now silent as the grave.

“He stood there, sweat beading from his brow. This was the monologue of an insane man, a man who has lost everything. And who is about to lose his life.” Byakuya narrated.

“Lose my life…” Kiyotaka repeated. “No, don’t say it like that Byakuya!”

“Then...How do you want us to say it?” Aoi asked.

“Say it like it is. I’m. About. To. Be. Executed! I killed in the name of justice, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune to it myself! The past two times I averted my eyes, shamed the system. But now, now I see it for what it is!” Kiyotaka turned his head to Monokuma. “Makoto and Junko died in my pursuit of justice. Kiyotaka is just another casualty! Monokuma, please, as a dying man’s wish, put up the picture of the man I am after!” 

“You kiddos are freaky, like super freaky! But I’ll humor you!” Monokuma hit another button, and a screen descended from the ceiling with an image of a man in an orange jumpsuit. He looked like a very stereotypical gangster, down to the scar on his left eye.

“Him! He is a master criminal and deserves to die a slow and painful death!” Kiyotaka declared.

“Hey you crazy bastard, what does showing us his picture do?” Leon asked.

“What do you think!” Kiyotaka responded. “This man.” He gestured toward the screen. “Is the man that Kiyotaka Ishimaru died for. Like it or not, the image of that face will be forever be seared into your minds! Kiyotaka Ishimaru will be a stepping stone for justice…”

“Died? Kiyotaka, are you too dumb to even know basic tenses?” Byakuya glared while he spoke.

“Oh, no. That’s not it at all! Kiyotaka Ishimaru began dying when he struck Makoto, and finished dying when he decided to kill Junko! I am no longer him...I am…Kiyokuma!” The man in the uniform grabbed the police pin that he had on his uniform and in one swift motion dragged the sharp point across his left eye in a zigzag pattern, mimicking Monokumas design. He laughed maniacally every second.

“Holy shit! Even I think that’s a bit intense!” Monokuma said, sweating some liquid that surely wasn’t actual sweat.

“This is who I am! Monokuma is a genius! This system of the people you have to come to known as friends being judge, jury, and executioner is amazing! Paired with the hope Makoto had taught us all, it’s perfect!”

“Sorry to cut things short here! I mean, I love the enthusiasm for what I’m doing here. Being a headmaster in a killing game is underappreciated!” Monokuma began. “But now you know what time it is!” 

“Wait, Monokuma! Let me do it! Let me dish out the justice that I deserve! Please!” Kiyokuma, with the pink still dripping from his face, said. 

“Why the hell not?!” Monokuma said as he threw his red button down to the former detective.

Kiyokuma smiled an eerie smile that went from ear to ear. But before he pressed the button, he glanced at Celestia, causing her stomach to drop. He took a few steps towards her, but Leon moved between them. 

“Leave her alone you freak.” He said, putting on his most intimidating voice. But Celestia walked to meet him, to the shock of everyone as well as their concern.

“What is it ‘Kiyokuma?” She asked. Her tone was aggressive, whoever this ‘Kiyokuma’ was at least partially contributed to the death of Kiyotaka.

“I’ll tell you what I want...Kiyotaka Ishimaru was a coward. If it was me, the moment Monokuma told us the rules of this game, I would’ve marched to your room and snapped your neck. That is what I think of ‘Gang leaders’. It goes same for the gambler, and anyone else I found out was so disrespectful to justice. I guess if that man was the Super High School Level detective then I...I am the Super High School Level Murderous Fiend! If I had more time, I’d kill everyone who hates justice!” Kiyokuma frowned for a moment. “But that’s if I had time...And I don’t...But that doesn’t mean I can’t be sent off with a bang! Monokuma, I hope you prepared an ultra special execution for me.” He was now sweating with excitement, the smile having crept back to his face. “Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s punishment time!” And with that, he hit the red button in his hand, and another execution was in progress.


	27. Execution: Super Duper High School Level Death Penalty!

Kiyokuma was sitting in a courtroom. Not like Monokuma’s makeshift room, this was a proper courtroom. He was sitting in the defendants chair, smiling a vile smile. A jury of Monkumas was to his right, and in front was a Monokuma in the black garb of a judge. Kiyokuma’s heart was beating loudly, loud enough to be used as a metronome to keep rhythm. The juror Monokumas were seemingly murmoing amongst themself, until finally one turned toward the judge Monokuma and held up a sign that said, in large font, “GUILTY! DEATH PENALTY!”

The jude banged its gavel, and the chair that Kiyokuma suddenly changed. A heavy metal bowl slammed onto his head seemingly from nowhere, and metal restraints forced his arms and legs to be bound to the chair. All pieces that made up the courtroom fell through doors in the floor, leaving the room barren. Without all the set pieces, it was easily seen that the walls were concrete, likely cold to the touch. A single mirror was on the wall, undoubtedly a one-way mirror. Kiyokuma understood what this room was, this was a proper execution chamber. This made his grin only widen.

Out of nowhere, 6 Monokumas popped out of the floor wearing soldier uniforms and wielding rifles, while a 7th held a sign that read “FIRING SQUAD.”

“CRACK” Smoke bellowed out of one of the rifles, the bullet finding purchase in Kiyokuma’s shoulder, causing pink to splatter outward. Within a second, there was another loud “CRACK”. Followed by 4 more. One in each shoulder, two in the ribs, and one in each knee. But none proved fatal, as Kiyokuma sat there laughing, straining the restraints as he chuckled violently. 

The 6 Monokumas ran frantically through a metal door, and a different one appeared in their place. One was wearing a nurses uniform, while the only one that remained from the previous flipped to the next sign it held that said “LETHAL INJECTION.” Nurse Monokuma whipped out two syringes. It hurried over to the bound and bleeding Kiyokuma with the shots, and quickly stabbed him in both of his thighs. Instead of injecting the fluid in the shots, Nurse Monokuma simply yanked them back out, and then shoved them back in. Over and over, left then right, Kiyokuma was stabbed at least a dozen times in each leg. Kiyokuma threw his head back in pain, pain still having some effect on him. It finally slammed both needles in his legs for a final time, and pressed the backs of the syringe, the liquid finally being injected. The grin on his face remained, even as the blood began leaking out of his eyes.

As with the last time, Nurse Monokuma ran out of the door waving its arms, but unlike that time, the door slammed behind them, leaving the sign bearing Monokuma alone. He flipped to the last card, which read “Electric Chair!”

From nowhere, the Monokuma produced a black hood that was quickly placed over its head. It tossed the sign to the floor and walked closer to Kiyokuma. A compartment in the floor flipped over, revealing a lever. Executioner Monokuma grabbed the lever with both hands, and inched it forward. Kiyokuma jumped in reaction from the electricity. The Monokuma jerked it back to its off position after just a second. It pulled it forward again, this time further than last. Kiyokuma shook worse, but it was shut off after a slightly longer period of time. This kept going, the lever was pulled a bit further for a slightly longer period of time. The time in between each pull was gradually shortened as well. The restraints clattered against the convulsing arms and legs of Kiyokuma, and the Executioner Monokuma kept up its act. This continued, it kept forcing the lever each time as it creaked horrible and Kiyokuma kept convulsing more and more. Finally, when Executioner Monokuma pulled the lever to its maximum voltage, it didn’t shut it off, instead continuing to pull it as it forced against the metal base. Kiyokumas eyes grew red, and smoke began rising from his wrists where they were bound as well as out of the bowl on his head. 

As the Executioner Monokuma pulled one final time, the lever snapped. Before the upper half hit the floor, Kiyokumas head slumped forward. He twitched several more times, and the bindings that had been holding him in place disengaged. With nothing holding him in place, he fell forward to the cold floor. There was no longer any rise or fall in his chest. Kiyotaka, or Kiyokuma, was dead.


	28. Sing a Requiem

Celestia stood in the room alone. She looked around the room, the bed was perfectly made, the clothes in the closet were perfectly pressed, and the desk was meticulously organized. So this, Celestia thought, is what the dorm of the Super High School Level Detective looks like.

After the execution, several of her classmates attempted to console Celestia. She simply turned and walked back to the dormitory, but instead of heading to hers, she went to Kiyotaka’s, if only to get some semblance of closure. She sat on the bed and remembered the truly enthusiastic detective, and the passion he felt for justice. “My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! I am the Super High School Level Detective, for I place the law above all else!” Those were the first words he ever spoke to her. “If you break it, you will have me to deal with. And by that, I mean the proper judicial proceedings after I discover your fiendish plot!” Those words were part of his core ideals, Celestia knew that. “Sometimes, dear Ms. Maizono, people are hurt in the pursuit of justice!” That was one of the last things he said to her, completely contradictory to the man that she knew. Monokuma’s evil game warped a man who was in love with justice into whatever he was when he was executed. 

While thinking, she moved towards the desk and pulled the elegant looking chair out and sat. She opened some of the files that were neatly placed on the desk, and read the contents. “Sakura Oogami, the Super High School Level Soldier. Undoubtedly a brave soul who sacrificed herself to save others.” Celestia could see the massive women as if she was there.““Perhaps it would be for everyone’s best interest if you kept such a prediction to yourself. It causes panic, and panic solves nothing.” Celestia thought of those calming words, one of the only pieces of wisdom Sakura managed to impart on her before she gave her life to protect all the others. 

“Victim was one Kyoko Kirigiri. Appears to be a victim of some type of poison, suspects include Mondo, Aoi, Sayaka, and Leon.” Celestia read another one of the folders and smiled as she recalled her. “My name is Kyoko Kirigiri. I am a Fashionista.” Kyoko was a quiet person, and Celestia regretted not speaking to her more. She had a lot of untapped potential, and Celestia could tell her eyes hid piercing intellect. Monokuma robbed Celestia of that potential friend. 

She flipped through the folder, and saw an update on that case. “The culprit was found to be Chihiro Fujisaki, the Super High School Level Idol…” It went on to detail the motive and the way he killed Kyoko, and Celestia dug her fingers into her palm, a small drip of blood dropped onto the paper as her metal finger covering pierced her hand. “The last thing I want is to disappoint all of you. As the Super High School Level Idol, it’s up to me to keep a smile on everyone’s face, that’s what I promise my fans before performing!” All Celestia could think of was that bright spark of happiness that was crushed because of Monokuma’s sick and twisted motives. 

She picked up another folder, and it was a retelling to the second trial. “Mondo Oowada was strangled in the library with a cord.” Mondo, that was an interesting person. If anyone could do what Celestia did, it was him. “The primary rule of martial arts is to remain calm, so that’s what we gotta do in a situation like this!” Celestia knew that he had an anger within him, but that fire was contained by his loyalty to Mukuro and his training in martial arts. What kind of person would he be without those qualities, Celestia thought. No matter the answer, it was unforgivable that Monokuma snuffed that fire out prematurely.

“The culprit was Yasuhiro Hagakure” the document proclaimed. Yasuhiro was a desperate man who wanted to live the high life, but who hadn’t the competence to pull if off. But Celestia always respected gamblers, their winner-take-all attitude. Despite not knowing anything about card games, she has always felt that she would be a hell of a player. Could she blame Yasuhiro for betting it all to save himself from those on the outside? No, she decided. It was Monokuma’s fault for using his dreams against him.

There wasn’t a third case file, but upon opening the desk drawer, she saw many, many more files, alphabetically organized. She plucked a folder from the “N” section and she began reading Makoto’s file. “Truly unrivaled in sheer optimism and passion.” Celestia agreed, and thought of the near annoyingly steadfast Makoto. “When my favorite character dies or a game has some unsatisfactory ending, I could easily just huff and puff and never touch it again, but instead, I write what I would think would be a better ending, or I guess a more satisfying ending to me.” Fanficition is such a simple thing, someone else’s ideas retold. But that, Celestia thought, was the spirit of Makoto. The concept of hope was millennia old, but Makoto’s retelling of what it meant to him was what inspired so many. Monokuma killed the personification of hope, and Celestia will make him pay.

She then found Junko’s file. “Extremely determined to ensure everyone lives to her moral code” Celestia certainly couldn’t argue with that assessment. “Hmm….Never heard of them. But a gang, that’s uber immoral! Disband at once!” When was the last time someone spoke to her like that? To command her with such absolute authority. Celestia scoffed retroactively, but she still very much respected the determination it took to look a gang leader in the eye and tell them that they were going to disband. What could a woman like that do after school? Perhaps a detective or a judge. As much as it would be a pain to face off against someone like that, she would’ve made a fine Prime Minister. The millions of people that could’ve been helped by her were all deprived by Monokuma. It was unforgivable. 

Kiyotaka even had a file on himself. It was the most thorough one by far, but Celestia expected that. “Kiyotaka Ishimaru was admitted as the Super High School Level Detective. He has been a noted as a passionate advocate for the law. Despite being admitted to a psychiatric ward in the past during a mental break down” That was interesting, Celestia thought. But it explained a few things. No matter, she still respected the hell out of him. 

She thumbed to the ‘L’ section, and pulled the file on herself. “Celestia Ludenberg is the ‘SHSL’ Biker Gang Leader. Aggressively supports her stances on anything, and is known to be kinder to those she considers allies.” Several more lines detailed her involvement in the Red Aces, and then an ‘update’. “Update: I have had the pleasure of becoming close friends with Celestia. She is a kind soul, despite her legally dubious background. Extremely adept at detective work.” Celestia had learned a lot about herself since the mutual killing game had started. If she had been asked before if she would kill for her freedom, she would’ve almost certainly said yes. But something about those she had come to meet changed her. Her duty to her gang taught her to be steadfast in ensuring her survival, but it taught her to cherish her companions. And that is what everyone here was now, companions. Actually, she thought, they were more than that. Like the members of her gang, they were soldiers. But this wasn't a turf war, they were soldiers in the war against Monokuma.

“Hmm, what is this?” Celestia noticed that the drawer below the one with the personal files was locked. She felt around below the desk, and sure enough, she found a key taped to it, just like Kiyotaka. She unlocked the drawer and found a single folder. “Operation Origin” was in black ink near the top of the first page, Celestia continued to read. “The question of whether the ‘Mastermind’ of the Mutual Killing Game was among the students is one of the most pressing that we need to uncover. I have recruited Makoto in my efforts to investigate with me. By medicating the rest of the students with Robaride, I can ensure no one is awake while we search the rooms. We have both agreed to place some of the medication into the breakfast of our classmates.” Well, Celestia noted, that certainly explained everyone’s absurd sleep schedule. “Upon investigating, I have discovered Monokuma did not act at me using a loophole in the rules of entering restricted areas until the morning. This leads this detective to believe that Monokuma is not an AI as we previously expected. Makoto and I will search the ground again tomorrow night.” 

Well, that is certainly something, she thought. She took the file, and stood up to leave. As her hand was on the doorknob, she took a deep breath. She could feel the departed souls behind her, and she opened the door and walked back to her room. She laid down on her bed, and wiped her face. How odd, she observed, her cheek was wet.


End file.
